This month, the UK provisionally broke May temperature records two days in a row. That led some lawns to curl and yellow in distress, though you’re best off waiting for the rain instead of hosing your grass down, even when it looks worse for wear. 

And even though no hosepipe bans have been announced in the UK, a peek at Google Trends shows that searches are significantly up from last week. It looks like gardeners are prepping, or at least checking, for sanctions.

But are those fears reasonable, and how can we get our gardens ready now for possible bans later on? 

Will we have a hosepipe ban in 2026?

We can’t say for sure yet.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)′ Chief Horticulturist, Guy Barter, said: “Although we had a wet winter which filled reservoirs and aquifers and there is no indication of temporary use restrictions (as hosepipe bans are officially called), supply and demand problems in the intense recent heat have been reported in the press”.

The BBC, for instance, reports we may be on track to see the same drought conditions we saw last year, which led to a ban; that’s not to mention 2026′s predicted super El Niño.

Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, Prof Bill McGuire, previously told HuffPost UK that this extreme weather event could have “a huge impact on global weather, bringing drought, floods and other extreme weather right across the planet”. 

Though what that might mean for the UK specifically is harder to tell in the short term.

How can I start to prepare now for possible hosepipe bans? 

Barter told us that “Episodes like this [recent heatwave] remind gardeners why it is wise to have water butts for tiding the garden over dry periods. With luck, they will be refilled by summer rainstorms.” 

Water butts divert rainfall from places like your gutter into a large barrel, which often has a tap on the bottom, so it’s smart to place it on a stand. 

It’s not just that they’re a smarter use of water, either. Plants much prefer rainwater to the stuff from your taps, because it has a pH and mineral content they love.

What if I don’t have room for a water butt? 

In that case, try mulching to keep whatever rain has fallen on your soil. Additionally, putting saucers under plants allows rain to collect in helpful puddles underneath pots. 

During water shortages, the RHS added, “grey water” from e.g. your shower or washing-up bowl will do the job for a while. 

“Waste water from the kitchen, bathroom basins, baths and showers can also be used in summer gardening. Plants seldom resent this and it ekes out mains water supplies,” Barter said.

Smart planting matters, too. 

“Gardeners who have planted drought-tolerant borders and gardens have been rewarded by lovely flowers and plants with no need to water. Where watering has been needed, consider planting more drought-tolerant plants in autumn for next year,” the expert said.

“It is a bit late for planting now, but any containers or baskets that need restocking can be planted with angelonia, pelargoniums and salvia, all of which can get by with less water than most plants.”

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how feeling “meh” all the time can be a sign of anhedonia or dysthymia. 

But according to psychologist Dr Bijal Chheda of Nos Curare, not feeling particularly motivated can be caused by a range of issues and conditions.

She said that demotivation is “one of the brain’s early responses to ongoing stress,” explaining, “As stress builds, the brain shifts into energy-saving mode, making focus and initiating tasks feel difficult, which can drain motivation.”

This can be common among those with ADHD, for instance, she added. 

While many of us may try to will ourselves out of these periods, the psychologist said this is a mistake. 

What should I do if I feel demotivated? 

Sometimes, Dr Chheda said, the stress and self-blame you feel about not being productive can, ironically, take a lot of energy. “Overwhelm and perfectionism” are common culprits. 

But believing you’re a failure when you don’t give everything 100% – and thinking you can will yourself back into an A-star performance – is a trap that can sap your motivation, she continued. 

“If this sounds familiar, it can help to stop relying on willpower and instead lower the barrier to entry. Start with a messy first version, giving yourself permission to do it badly just to get it moving.” 

I’ve seen success with half-assed workouts, which helped to keep me way more consistent than all-or-nothing exercise regimens I inevitably dropped out of. Science says that tiny shifts in our eating, sleep, and exercise routines – we’re talking two minutes more movement and grams more vegetables a day – can help you to live longer, too.

Actively deciding it’s OK to do a less-than-optimal version of whatever task you’re hoping to achieve “makes it easier to re-engage with the task, without feeling pressure to succeed the first time round,” the expert said. 

Speak to an expert if demotivation lasts a long time 

As we’ve mentioned before, feeling demotivated for a long time can be related to anhedonia or dysthymia. 

“If you feel this is a consistent pattern, it may be worth exploring whether ADHD could be a factor with a qualified mental health professional,” Dr Chheda added. 

The NHS says that low mood, which can include not enjoying things you used to, not being able to concentrate, and feeling helpless, can be signs of depression, for which you should consider speaking to a professional.

What counts as “powerhouse fruits and vegetables” or PFVs?

In her study, “powerhouse” fruits and vegetables had to offer at least 10% more of 17 nutrients per 100 calories than other foods.

These nutrients the study looked at were: 

1. potassium,
2. fibre,
3. protein,
4. calcium,
5. iron,
6. thiamin,
7. riboflavin,
8. niacin,
9. folate,
10. zinc,
11. vitamin A,
12. vitamin B₆,
13. vitamin B₁₂,
14. vitamin C,
15. vitamin D,
16. vitamin E, and
17. vitamin K.

These nutrients had been deemed of public health importance by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations and Institute of Medicine, the paper read.

The more of these a plant packed per calorie, the higher the PFV’s nutrient density score was.

However, the paper stressed that these aren’t the only potentially health-boosting components of food; therefore, these metrics could miss some produce that’s great for us.

41 fruits and vegetables, ranked by disease-fighting potential 

Of the 47 foods the study author looked at, 41 met her criteria for “PFV”. (The six that missed the mark were raspberries, tangerines, cranberries, garlic, onion, and blueberries).

In order, their nutrient density scores were: 

• Watercress – 100.00
• Napa cabbage – 91.99
• Chard – 89.27
• Beetroot greens – 87.08
• Spinach – 86.43
• Chicory – 73.36
• Leaf lettuce – 70.73
• Parsley – 65.59
• Romaine lettuce – 63.48
• Collard greens – 62.49
• Turnip greens – 62.12
• Mustard leaves – 61.39
• Endive – 60.44
• Chive – 54.80
• Kale – 49.07
• Dandelion leaves – 46.34
• Red pepper – 41.26
• Rocket – 37.65
• Broccoli – 34.89
• Pumpkin – 33.82
• Brussels sprouts – 32.23
• Spring onion – 27.35
• Kohlrabi – 25.92
• Cauliflower – 25.13
• Cabbage – 24.51
• Carrot – 22.60
• Tomato – 20.37
• Lemon – 18.72
• Iceberg lettuce – 18.28
• Strawberry – 17.59
• Radish – 16.91
• Winter squash (all varieties) – 13.89
• Orange – 12.91
• Lime – 12.23
• Grapefruit (pink and red) – 11.64
• Swede – 11.58
• Turnip – 11.43
• Blackberries – 11.39
• Leeks – 10.69
• Sweet potato – 10.51
• Grapefruit (white) – 10.47.

With that said, the best approach for a healthy diet is eating a balance of healthy foods. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables of all different kinds is liked to better heart health, the British Heart Foundation has said.

Nicolas Cage has revealed that he has legally changed his name to Nicolas Cage, which was previously only his stage moniker. 

The Oscar winner shared the news in an interview with Variety posted on Wednesday.

Variety’s reporter asked Nick – who was born Nicolas Kim Coppola – about one of his inspirations being the comic book superhero Luke Cage.

“Is it strange to still be known as Nicolas Cage?” she asked.

“No. I am Nick Cage,” he  then responded. “I changed my name legally last year.”

He added: “I’m Nick Cage in life, and I’m Nick Cage on camera. ’Tis better to be the patriarch of my own little family than the clown cousin on the margins of someone else’s, so I decided I’m going to bring it on and be ‘Cage’.”

The Leaving Las Vegas actor – whose uncle is The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola and aunt is Rocky star Talia Shire – explained: “Cage is a name that I liked coming across in the comics.”

“I just thought he had a cool name,” he continued. “And I grew up in a very avant-garde, artsy family and there was talk about John Cage and the experimental compositions that he did.”

He added: “I was looking for something like ‘James Dean’, I was looking for something short and sweet. I thought, well, I’ll keep the name Nicolas because my father [the late professor August Coppola] named me Nicolas – with French spelling, which has always frustrated me, because everyone adds an ‘h’. I don’t know why he gave me the French spelling! But he did.”

The actor then made it clear that he can still be called Nicolas or Nick because “people know me as both”.

The newly-legally-certified Nicolas Cage currently stars in Spider-Noir on Amazon Prime.

May’s “Flower Moon”, or the full moon which marked the beginning of the month, has come and gone. But its second “blue moon” is yet to come.

In a relatively uncommon cosmic event, May 2026 will be bookended by a second moon – a “monthly blue moon,” to be precise. 

Here’s what that means and when to see it.

What’s a monthly blue moon? 

There are two types of blue moons: seasonal and monthly. 

The one we’ll see this May is a monthly moon. These are a little easier to understand than seasonal blue moons and, BBC Sky At Night Magazine explained, technically “astronomically incorrect”. 

A monthly blue moon just means you see two full moons in the same month. That happens because while the moon takes 29.5 days to complete all of its phases, most Earth months have 30 or 31 days.

So, while our years have 365 days (except for leap years), 12 cycles of the moon take about 354 days. That’s a pretty big discrepancy.

As a result, every two to three years, we experience a 13th moon in the calendar year rather than a single full moon every month. This is called a “blue” moon, because unlike our regular moons, which are all called things like the “flower”, “blood”, and “wolf” moons, they aren’t named. 

But this is a fairly new idea, first invented in 1946. They came about because of James Hugh Pruett, who misunderstood some dates in a farmer’s almanack.

The much older, original “blue moon” type is a seasonal blue moon, though the newer term is arguably the more common definition now.

What’s a seasonal blue moon? 

Instead of looking at moons in an Earth month, seasonal blue moons relate to the astronomical season, which is marked by solstices and equinoxes.

The period between a solstice and an equinox is one astronomical season.

Most of the time, these only get three moons, but sometimes, because (like the Earth) the moon cycles aren’t perfectly aligned with these seasons, we get four.

A seasonal blue moon is the third moon in an astronomical season of four moons.

The next monthly blue moon, like the kind we’ll have on Sunday, will be on December 31, 2028.

But the next seasonal blue moon will fall on 20 May 2027. 

When can I catch the May 2026 blue moon in the UK?

May’s blue moon will rise on Sunday, 31 May.

Moonrise is set for 10:05pm that day.

But it’s technically expected to reach its peak on Sunday, 31 May at 9:45am, Royal Museums Greenwich said.

The moon will look full in the couple of nights before and after this, though.

How can I see the blue moon in the UK?

It should be easy to see by looking up at the sky at night, though clear skies make this easier. 

May’s blue moon is a “micromoon”, meaning it appears smaller and less bright than usual.

Thanks to acclaimed dramas like Cucumber, Years And Years and It’s A Sin, Bafta-winning screenwriter Russell T Davies has been responsible for some of the most heartbreaking scenes in recent TV history.

But even compared to the most jaw-dropping and breath-taking moments of his past works, his latest offering, Tip Toe, stands apart as his most unflinching work to date.

Taking an up-close look at modern life, the hard-hitting drama introduces us to two neighbours – played by Alan Cumming and David Morrissey – who have tolerated living next door to one another for more than a decade.

However, in an ever-divided society and a culture that increasingly pits people against one another, the two men find themselves suddenly at war over their deeply-held beliefs, with ugly consequences as their feud drags them both over a point of no return.

Speaking to HuffPost UK ahead of the show’s release, Russell told us that there were “various incidents” both in his own life, and in those of “every friend I’ve got”, that led to the inception of Tip Toe.

“Things happened both at work and at home – in ways that I’m not going to go into because it’ll only encourage them to happen again, genuinely – that made me think ‘that’s enough’,” he explains.

“If this anger, this violence and these lies are getting close to my life – I’m in a very privileged, lucky and well off position, so for those who are not so well off, then this must be really bad. These times must be getting worse and worse and worse.”

While his friends in the queer community are “feeling more and more pressure, and more and more attacks upon them” in the current climate, Russell notes that these fears are also being felt by other marginalised people.

“I have a friend who is a wheelchair user, and someone turned up at her door, rang the doorbell, and when she opened the door, there was a man saying, ‘you’re lying, you can walk, you’re claiming this on benefits’. To her face!” he recalls. 

“And the fear of physical proximity was so terrifying. The anger that I always thought was online is now visibly stepping into the modern world.”

He says these feelings of fear, anxiety and division only continued to “rise up and rise up”, until he “literally felt driven to write” the script that eventually became Tip Toe.

“I had to,” he explains. “There was no way I was not going to write it. If they’d then refused to make it, I still would have felt happy [to have written it], because I would have got it out of my system.”

Tip Toe touches on timeless themes like family relationships, sexuality, gender expression and tolerance, but also hones in closely on more thorny topics relevant to today’s world, from misinformation and online radicalisation to the resurgence of far-right politics, the “manosphere”, transphobia and the dangers and consequences of unregulated social media.

Episode one actually starts at the end of the story, in the aftermath of an act of unspeakable violence and hatred, before rewinding to just days earlier, leaving viewers pondering how the hell things could reach that point (and, as Russell puts it, “how the hell is society reaching this point? Which we are!”).

Unlike some of his other most popular works, for Tip Toe’s writer, the show isn’t so much a cautionary tale as a reflection of Britain in 2026 as he sees it.

“I think it’s here,” he insists. “If this was a drama about a Jew living next door to someone [targeting them because of their religion], not one person would be doubting the credibility of the story. In fact, I’d be told that I was out of date, because it’s literally already happening out there, in front of us.”

As a result, both he and Channel 4 – with whom he’s been collaborating since the 1990s – both felt it was “urgent and needed and necessary” to get Tip Toe on the air as quickly as possible.

“I love that,” he enthuses. “That’s a clarion call for me.”

Throughout his TV career, beginning with Queer As Folk through to the aforementioned Years And Years and even Doctor Who, Russell has been commenting on all aspects of society (“I’ve done an awful lot to try and stop these terrible things happening – and it just gets worse,” he observes) for a quarter-century.

Regrettably, he now believes things are in a more dire state than ever.

“Queer As Folk went out in 1999 when the age of consent was 18, section 28 was in place, there was no gay marriage, there was no gay adoption,” he points out. “All those things have come in within those 26 years. Those are extraordinary leaps. But those are also the very things now that are being weaponised against us.”

“All this time I thought visibility was the answer, or the cure,” he laments. “To the extent that I dragged my gayness into every interview that I’ve ever done. You could literally be asking about the weather and I’ll say, ‘yes, I’m gay… and it’s sunny’ – because I genuinely believe in [the importance of] visibility.

“[I think about] someone sitting at home, trapped in a closet. or trapped in a lonely house, or trapped in a lonely town, where they’ve never heard anyone say that before – and I will be that person to say it. And I still believe in that!”

“But now, I also have to reckon with, ‘what happens then?’,” he continues. “I never thought ahead! It’s as if I were imagining some sort of a future nirvana, which no society ever has. We’re always at war with something. And here we are at war with ourselves.

“So, yes, you can point to things that are demonstrably better. Yet now, they’re being weaponised to make it worse.”

“What happens when we’ve got visibility, when we’ve got equality, when we’ve got representation?” he adds. “What happens when they see us and they still don’t like us?”

These are the same questions Alan Cumming’s Tip Toe character, Leo, is found asking himself in the drama’s first episode following when reflecting on fresh attacks on the queer community.

As the owner Leo is the owner of a popular venue in Manchester’s iconic Canal Street, Leo who has fought for LGBTQ+ equality over the decades. As he reflects on progress made for queer people, a friend reminds him that as a community figurehead, and the employer of trans bar staff, he’s still on the frontline of the culture war whether he likes it or not. As Russell quotes these character’s concerns verbatim, it’s not difficult to see similarities between Leo and Russell himself in these moments.

“Oh! The weaponisation against me online began the moment I put a trans character into Doctor Who,” he agrees.

After helming the hugely successful reboot of Doctor Who in the mid-2000s, he returned to the franchise in the early 2020s, and remains its showrunner.

During his tenure, he’s been repeatedly forced to defend his vision for the show against far-right critics who have argued that it’s “too woke”.

The backlash against him personally, he says, “began then, on that date” when it was first announced he’d be introducing a transgender character into the long-running series.

“And it has never stopped,” he says, before quickly clarifying: “With lunatics. And idiots. I mean, there is no measure of their lack of intelligence. But that is now crossing over into the real world. That’s the scary thing. 

“Lunatic action is being taken. Violent thoughts are being expressed and then violent action is being taken.”

This harsh introduction to the sinister side of social media included things being “aimed at me professionally, and in my own house, that really seriously make me fear for what the situation might be in the future”.

“I had always imagined that a death threat was not deathly and not threatening,” he claims. “And now, you realise they are becoming deathly, and they are becoming threatening.

“And they’re being aimed in all directions – there are people whose views I profoundly disagree with who are also receiving death threats. It’s become part of normal language. And you have to wonder what the hell is happening to us and where are we going, with no end to this in sight.”

The root of it all, Russell says, began “right there”, gesturing to his phone “the moment we all went online”.

“We all love it so much that we don’t question it,” he observes. “It’s a brand new form of communication in the history of the human race. This has never happened before.

“They say when the printing press was invented there were then 200 years of war. And the printing press was a lot slower – believe you me, Bibles did not reach those villages as fast as the internet does

“Now, we’re all connected to each other all of the time, and we’re not evolved to communicate like that. It is absolutely wrong in every shape and form.”

“I know for a fact that communicating what you think in the form of writing is very, very difficult,” he says. “Now that we’re all typing, we’re all led on as though it’s easy – and it’s not.

“People are expressing their thoughts when they’re not always their thoughts. They haven’t worked out how to say things properly, so they say things simply, and they say things brutally. And then, because that’s said so often, they do end up thinking that. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“We’re absolutely trapped in that loop. It’s utterly the wrong way to communicate. And now, we sit here wondering why children’s mental health is so bad. It’s completely fucking obvious.”

Indeed, as tensions continue rising in the world of Tip Toe, preventable situations are exacerbated even more by characters’ online lives, whether they’re using social media as a well-intentioned means to connect or being drawn into the dark underbelly of these platforms.

Addressing the fact where we now live in a world where “hatred” can be “monetised” and “rewarded” rather than “challenged”, Russell says: “If you’re a YouTube channel now, expressing this hate, you can attract adverts, and you get paid. And that makes you angrier, and express it more, and more money comes in.

“This is the revolution that’s happening. This is why everything’s going completely wrong. And we’re letting it happen! I’m describing something we all know is happening, every single day, and then we’ll go and have our tea tonight and do nothing about it.”

Russell is similarly critical of X, the platform once known as Twitter, which he’s not posted on since 2021, branding it a “hate site”.

He goes on to share that he’s recently run into some “very big problems” in his work at the BBC, having “refused to be part of any press release that went on Twitter”.

“I said, I’m taking my name off anything [that goes on Twitter],” he claims. “There is no way a publicly-funded corporation should be posting on a hate site. And it is a hate site now – it’s run by one man with an aim to increase hatred, and all the safeguards have been taken off, and public bodies still post on it. It should stop immediately.”

“In fact,” he offers. “We should sue those public [bodies]. We pay for the BBC – we pay for Channel 4 as well – and they’re public bodies. They should absolutely stop posting on a site that is not a public forum, but is a hate site.”

Last year, these questions around online radicalisation were raised with the release of another well-received drama, Netflix’s Adolescence, in which a teenage boy is sucked into the so-called “manosphere” and winds up murdering a young girl at his school.

A key difference between Adolescence and Tip Toe is that, in the latter, it’s the adult characters who find themselves being radicalised by content they’re viewing on social media.

Russell agrees that Adolescence is a “marvellous piece of work” that has the potential to “change the world”, but points out that its release also inadvertently shone a light on its themes in a more real way when it became the subject of far-right backlash partly due to racist misinformation spread by, among others, X owner Elon Musk and Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch.

“Go and look at the venom that was directed at Jack Thorne. He became public enemy number one,” Russell says. “Go and look at the tweets despising him, calling him a liar, calling him a fraud… all because it was a white child and not a Black child [depicted in the series].

“He is absolutely under attack to this day, still. [After Adolescence’s release], the bile and anger festered and [was] weaponised more than ever.”

Increasingly divided though the world of Tip Toe may be, Russell was adamant when sitting down to write it that he didn’t want to portray either side of any argument as perfect. Deplorable though some characters’ actions might be, we discover they’re capable of kindness and compassion in the most surprisingly and seemingly unlikely of places.

He claims: “I think I’d be a terrible writer if I didn’t do that. I think that’s why I love writing, is exploring people like that.

“I’ve absolutely no interest in just being nice about people, because I think people are complicated and strange, and that’s why I write.”

As for what’s next, Russell admits he’s not sure how we get ourselves out of the corner we’re now backed into – or if people even want to.

“I don’t feel particularly optimistic,” he admits. “Great people will always do great things. That’s the story of the human race. But I think we’re now out of control in a way that we won’t even contemplate, because getting rid of your WhatsApp thread for your street, so you know what days the bins go out, is more important than children’s mental health.

“We’ve got every standard wrong, and we’re trapped. And we’re monetised to stay in this position – and you cannot vote against an algorithm and I think actually there’s no hope. That’s what I think. There is no hope.”

Prompted for a solution as to how we reverse things, he jokes: “You tell me! That’s why I wrote it. I put something like this into the world so that somebody can come up with something we can do.”

He does, however, have a warning for anyone standing by complacently as persecution against minorities in all forms continues to increase.

“That world out there is going to ‘other’ all of us,” he states. “It’s going to find ways to do this to every single one of us.”

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Tip Toe premieres on Channel 4 on Sunday 31 May.

If you’re as obsessed with The Boroughs as we are, you’ll also be desperate to know if Netflix is giving it a second season.

The supernatural drama follows a group of pensioners who investigate mysterious goings on at their upmarket retirement complex.

Upon its release earlier this month, the show was met with rave reviews from critics and audiences, helped in no small part by the performances from its all-star cast, which includes the likes of Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard and Clarke Peters.

Season one ended on an intriguing cliffhanger that saw Alfred’s character, Sam, glitching in the mirror, leaving fans on the edge of their seats for a second series.

Because of this, speculation is rife about when we’ll get a second season and what it will be about. Thankfully, showrunners Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews have an update…

Could there be a season 2 of The Boroughs on Netflix?

Good news – The Boroughs’ creators have revealed they have a three-season arc plan in mind for our unlikely group of heroes. 

“We have ideas for season two [and] know where [it] goes, and it builds directly off that moment, and nothing about that shot was done idly,” showrunner Jeffrey Addiss teased to IGN. 

“It was a tip of the cap to where we want to go, which means we can’t give away what it means, because that’s going to be the fun, knock on wood, should we get a second season,” the writer added.

The bad news? For the time being, Netflix has yet to announce if The Boroughs will be renewed, but we’ll keep you posted as soon as there are updates.

While we don’t know for certain that The Boroughs will get a second season, Netflix’s decision is often based on viewing figures. Since the show landed in the top spot on Netflix within a week of its release and has remained in the top 10 ever since, it’s a positive sign that the series could return in the future.

What could a potential season 2 of The Boroughs be about?

When asked if their three-season plan for The Boroughs would follow Mother, the creature living under the retirement complex, and her children, the showrunners were understandably cagey. 

“You always want something new,” Jeffrey explained. “We really want, across three seasons, for the audience to feel like we’ve answered all the questions.

“It doesn’t mean that we’re not introducing some crazy stuff in season two. We don’t think of it as a monster-of-the-season show. We do think of this as one large, complex story where crazy stuff continues to happen that’s surprising, but it is one story to us.”

The writing duo did get some help putting together that cliffhanger ending from people who know how to make gripping TV.

When writing the finale, they consulted with The Duffer Brothers – who are executive producers on The Boroughs, and previously helmed Stranger Things – about balancing a perfect ending that satisfies audiences but also “cracks the door” for an “interesting” second season. 

“They very clearly articulated, ‘You just never know’. Tell a complete story and then leave room to tell more story,” Will Matthews added.

“Our first draft has had a little bit more – not quite an ending, maybe kind of a beginning. It was a little bit in the middle. And they were like, ‘Do this… And then that’.”

While the showrunners are remaining tight-lipped about the future of Sam, Renee, Judy and co., they did give fans a tiny hint at the theme of a second series could be. 

“What would you do with a second chance?” Jeffrey teased.

We can’t wait.

The Boroughs’ first season is currently streaming on Netflix.

It has taken me decades to be ready to tell this story. Until I reached the safety of adulthood and created my own family, I wasn’t able to confront my parents’ story about my past. In their telling, I was “privileged.” After all, I grew up on a beautiful boat called Wavewalker, sailing around the world.

Of course I knew their story wasn’t true. Although I had grown up on Wavewalker from the age of 7 for almost a decade, I was trapped there — unable to go to school or have friends. While my brother was allowed to help out on deck, I was expected to cook and clean down below for hours each day. 

My normal life in England ended when I was 6 years old and my father announced that we were going to sail around the world. He wanted to recreate Captain Cook’s third voyage, which would take three years. This was a long time – but we would be back, he promised, before I was 10. That meant that even though I was leaving my best friend Sarah, my beloved water spaniel Rusty, and my dollhouse behind, they would all be waiting for me when we returned. 

Except that wasn’t what happened. We set sail from England a year after that announcement, and it was a decade before I returned alone at the age of 17. Most of the time in between I lived on Wavewalker andwas unable to go to school. We often ran out of fresh food – and sometimes almost ran out of water – on longer voyages. When that happened, we relied on canned and dried food, and my father allowed us each a cup of water a day for drinking and washing.

One of the challenges of my childhood, I grew to understand, was that my parents’ narrative looked true – we seemed to be living a privileged life by being able to sail to gorgeous places like Vanuatu and Fiji in the South Pacific. But the reality was very different. 

For a start, I learned early on our voyage how dangerous the ocean could be. A few months after we left England, we were hit by an enormous wave when my father attempted to cross the Southern Indian Ocean accompanied only by two novice crew members, my mother (who didn’t like sailing) and his two small children. I fractured my skull and broke my nose in that accident and had to endure multiple head operations without anaesthesia on the small atoll that we eventually found in the middle of the ocean.

But my life on Wavewalker wasn’t just physically dangerous. Living on a boat for a decade meant that I could rarely have friendships, I had little or no access to medical care and I couldn’t attend school. 

As I turned into a teenager, I had no private space. Instead I had to share the one working toilet we had on board with my family and up to eight or nine crew, and to share a cabin with adult crew members.

As the years went on, it became clear that my parents had no intention of fulfilling their promise to return home. I had no way of leaving the boat – I had no passport or money. But more than that, I had nowhere to go. 

We’d set sail when I was a small child, and after that I never saw any of my relatives again. Apart from my parents, I had no other adults in my life apart from the crew members who came and went. The only people I saw in authority were the customs and immigration officials who boarded our boat when we arrived in each new country, and they never expressed any interest in the welfare of the two children they found there.

While Wavewalker represented freedom for my parents – they could pull up the anchor and sail away whenever they wanted – it was a prison for me. 

I eventually realised that the only way I would ever escape Wavewalker was if I found a way to educate myself. I tried to convince my parents to let me go to school, and six years after setting sail, they finally agreed to allow me to enrol in an Australian correspondence school. I was 13 years old. 

While it was clear to me that my only possible escape was through education, studying by correspondence on a boat was very difficult. By this time my father had turned our boat into a sort of “floating hotel” to pay for our endless voyage, and my parents wanted me to work rather than spending my days with my nose in my books. 

There were also more practical issues. I had no postal address and I had no space in which to study apart from the one small table in our main cabin. Sometimes I would hide myself inside a sail at the front of the boat to study, knowing no one would come looking for me there. I had to fight my father for paper, which was an expensive commodity in the South Pacific. Whenever we reached a major port, I sent off the lessons I’d completed and asked the school to send them back to the post office at our next port of call, but if my father decided to change course, my lessons went astray.

I found the correspondence lessons very challenging, partially because I had missed a lot of education and because it was very difficult to learn remotely without being able to talk to a teacher. I knew, however, that I had no choice – it was my only way out.

After three years of studying by correspondence while at sea, when I was 16 and my brother was 15, my parents decided to put my brother into a school in New Zealand. (As my father once explained it to me, my education was less important since I would never have to support a family.) 

When my parents sailed away, I was left behind to look after my brother, doing the shopping, cooking and cleaning while he went to school each day and I tried to keep studying by correspondence. For nine months, we lived alone in a small hut beside a lake in a country in which I only knew one adult (who lived several hours away). My father left a small amount of money in a bank account that I could only access by forging his signature.

I kept working through my correspondence lessons, posting them off each week. I also wrote to every university I’d ever heard of, asking them if they would let me apply to be a student. Most wrote back saying that they would not consider me.

The local universities wouldn’t consider me because I was an English citizen, and the English ones wouldn’t consider me because they thought my qualifications were too hard to assess. But eventually Oxford University wrote back and ― after I sent them two essays – offered to interview me if I could find some way to get myself back to England. So I used money I’d earned picking kiwis, together with a small contribution from my father, to buy a one-way plane ticket, betting everything on that meeting. 

Amazingly, Oxford gave me a place, and I went to university the following year. By that time, however, my relationship with my parents was tenuous. I really struggled that first year at university – not only because I had almost no money and survived mainly on cans of tomatoes and dried pasta, but also because I found it hard to fit in socially after so many years of isolation. 

The good news is that after that tough first year, I started to make friends, and with access at last to libraries and laboratories, I thrived academically. After finishing my degree, I went on to do a Ph.D. at Cambridge University and then joined the UK government, working in the Treasury. It was there that I met my wonderful husband, Jeremy. When I became a parent myself – Jeremy and I had three lovely children – I was determined to treat my children very differently. I make it clear to them that my love will always be unconditional, and that I will always be there for them if they need me.

When my parents eventually returned to the UK, I tried several times to talk to them about the past, but they always reacted defensively, stating that it had “all worked out fine in the end.”

I knew I would probably lose the remaining relationship I had with them when I told the true story about my childhood. However, I never doubted that I would write about my time on Wavewalker. When my children reached the same age I was when I was struggling with my loneliness and lack of access to education, I at last saw my childhood through a mother’s eyes. I knew that I no longer had an obligation to maintain my parents’ narrative: My childhood was certainly unusual, but it was never privileged. 

Author’s Note: This essay is an account of my childhood as I experienced it, and based on extensive diaries and other documents from the time. Others who were present may have experienced it differently. But this is my story.

This piece was previously published on HuffPost. We’re sharing it again as part of HuffPost Personal’s “Best Of” series.

Do you have a compelling personal story you’d like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what we’re looking for here and send us a pitch.

There has also been a breakdown of community throughout society.

There’s a striking lack of community among everyone, prompting experts to raise alarms about a loneliness epidemic. This crisis is even more heightened in kids and is causing issues for young people, including boys.

“When I was growing up, I lived in a community and felt a connection to my community, to other kids in the community. Families were more connected,” said Kenneth Barish, a clinical professor of psychology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. “We’ve become much less connected to a community and kids need communities, kids need support not just from parents and extended families, but from mentors, coaches and teachers,”

There are a number of reasons why we’re less connected now. Parents work more, and they likely work nontraditional hours thanks to our always-on culture. There’s also more stress and economic inequality in society, Barish said, which allows people less time to devote to kids.

When opportunities for relationships break down, that’s “a tremendous source of distress for kids,” Barish said. Adults in a community ― whether it be parents, coaches, aunts or uncles ― often offer encouragement to kids throughout their lives. Without that, their mental health suffers.

“They’re much likely to become discouraged, withdrawn and then at risk for all kinds of mental health problems,” Barish said.

Kids spend less time playing, which can lead to unhappiness as well.

Another area of research that suggests what’s leading to kids’ unhappiness is “less opportunity for play,” according to Barish.

“Play is actually not just fun, although fun is good, fun is healthy,” Barish said. Data shows that kids overall spend less time playing as the focus has shifted from fun and play to academic success ― even in the early grades.

“Schools have decreased the amount of play time and increased the amount of academic time, and that actually is counterproductive because kids need play for their social development,” Barish said. “Play is helpful for their social maturity and for their ability to learn social skills, to learn accommodation to others and to be creative.”

“A decrease in the amount of time that kids are allowed to play may be another contributing factor to why kids are unhappy now,” he added. “Kids who play a lot are happier.”

Here’s what you can do to help.

To help young boys (or any young child) thrive, adults can take steps.

“There’s several really important recommendations,” Barish said. “One is actually just to spend more time listening. This is what we all need, otherwise we get stuck in bad feelings.”

This can cause anxiety and discouragement to take over, he added. But if an adult talks through these emotions with a child, it can help these feelings pass and even give kids tools to work through tough feelings.

Allow them to be soft and to be open with you, Diverlus suggested. You should also share what it looks like to express emotions in a healthy way.

It’s also important to enthusiastically engage with them about their strengths and interests, according to Barish. “That’s the best way to develop our relationship, to begin conversations, and to provide kids with support,” he said.

Another way to increase their happiness and deepen relationships is by playing with your child or grandchild.

“I’m a believer in parents and grandparents playing with kids. I think that’s even better because then they get the benefit not just of play, but of playing with us, and it strengthens our relationship,” Barish explained.

Letting young boys know that you’re proud of them is also important.

“Not just for their accomplishments, not for scoring a goal or getting an ‘A,’ but for their effort and their kindness to others,” Barish noted.

Speaking of kindness, it’s also important to help foster goodness by getting involved as a family in helping others, he said. “Helping others is really good for all of us at every age, even young kids, because it gives them a different sense of what they have to offer.”

Childhood is a time of change as kids grow into adulthood. “There’s so much of a shaping of their future in the world that happens. And I’m sure there’s so many ways that ... each and every one of us have interacted with young boys that maybe hasn’t been the healthiest. Maybe it’d be the pressure that we put on them ... or it’s the way that we’re trying to get them to feed into being strong,” Diverlus said. “All these tropes carry so much more weight and impact than we actually realise in the moment.”

Living with toxic masculinity is harmful to everyone, not just young boys, Diverlus stressed.

“Toxic masculinity impacts and harms us all... we all end up just being so much more jaded and unhappy as a result of that,” she said. 

It’s not just the current EES checks and upcoming ETIAS applications, or this year’s jet fuel costs and cancellations. Travelling has always been a pain; there are more rules for little things like power banks and wheeled suitcases than you might imagine. 

So any advice that makes the experience easier is welcome. 

Enter: the members of Reddit’s r/TravelHacks, who responded to a post by poster TapComprehensive2241 with tonnes of helpful advice. 

“What’s the one travel hack you swear most people don’t know about?”, the entry reads. 

Here are 11 of the most popular responses: 

1) Use up the last of your local currency during check-out 

“When checking out of your hotel, before they charge your credit card for the full price, use some or all of your local currency... towards paying the bill. Saves you bringing home foreign currency and avoids currency conversion charges.” 

Credit:u/BantryBound

2) Put your hotel’s details in your wallet

“Grab a hotel business card to show locals/taxi if you need directions or a ride.” 

Credit: u/popcorn2share

“Always do this... especially where English isn’t the primary language,” u/TapComprehensive2241 agreed. 

3) Pack some zip-seal plastic bags in your suitcase

“Stash a few different-sized ziplocks in your suitcase. Dirty hotel remotes? Stick it in a ziplock. Soiled clothes and no way to wash? Keeps them separated and smells contained.

“Shells from the beach. [Rubbish] bag. Snack holder. [Bag] organiser. [Sick] bag. Ice pack. Coin holder. Leak prevention for liquids. Keep a change of clothes rolled up tight in your backpack. Keeps sand off an e-reader at the beach. Endless possibilities.” 

Credit: u/Pure-Remote9614

4) Get more power from your adapter

“Pack a power strip with an appropriate adapter for wherever you’re going. Not every place has enough outlets to charge your devices. This is particularly handy if travelling with a group.” 

Credit: u/EmeraldVine

5) Prepare for offline navigation

“Pre-download offline Google maps for the area you’re going to be in so you can still navigate, even if you don’t have [data or signal]”. 

Credit: u/tatertotski

6) Avoid that annoying morning light 

“When your hotel curtain won’t close all the way to keep the light out, you can use the clothes hanger with the clips on it to hold them shut. Works like a charm every time!” 

Credit:u/KCMandy

7) Prepare your home for your exhausted, post-flight self 

“Make sure your home is clean – trash out, fresh sheets and towels, laundry done – before you travel, so you come home with nothing to do but unload.” 

Credit:u/TheRamblerJohnson

8) Forget traditional folding 

“Rolling your clothes instead of folding them gets you so much more room in your bag.” 

Credit:u/Vomit_freesince93

Note: we recently tried, and loved, “ranger rolling” to save space 

9) Turn your neck pillow into secret storage 

“Get a neck pillow with removable stuffing. If you need the extra space or weight, fill it with your clothes. You can hold a lot in a good-sized neck pillow.” 

Credit: u/Unusual_Ada

10) Download the local language on translation apps

“This tip saved us in Slovakia this past fall. We... had no data on our phones. Our train... was rerouted while we were on board [and we were dropped off at a] tiny town where... no one spoke [English]. We had to figure out how to get back on track, and thank goodness I had downloaded the languages.” 

Credit: u/rkDiggler_Esquire

11) Go to a hotel if you’re lost 

“Hotel employees are so knowledgeable, and often have access to maps and [the internet] and can help you with directions, where to eat, etc.” 

Credit: u/Morganpotato

A Reform UK victory in a former “red wall” seat like Makerfield seemed pretty nailed on a month ago.

With a strong body of support for Brexit in the region, Nigel Farage continued to lead in the polls and Reform’s huge success in the May elections – particularly in England’s local councils, where it picked up more than 1,450 seats – the right-wing party would have been pretty confident about securing their ninth MP.

It helps that all of Makerfield’s eight wards also voted for Reform on May 7.

But, when Labour MP and former minister Josh Simons announced he was stepping aside to make a path for Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to get back to Westminster, all bets were off.

The famous “King of the North” is popular across the political spectrum and better known than Reform’s Wigan councillor and “plucky plumber”, Robert Kenyon.

The first opinion poll of the by-election, from Survation survey of 369 people, put Burnham on top with 43% and Reform just behind on 40%.

Reform may have still felt confident about their chances of victory – until, perhaps, they glanced at who was in third place.

Restore Britain, a far-right splinter group founded earlier this year by Great Yarmouth MP, multimillionaire and former football chairman, Rupert Lowe, somehow clinched 7% with its candidate Rebecca Shepherd.

Lowe was elected as a Reform MP in 2024 before a huge falling out with Farage saw him kicked out of the party.

Now, his new group is evidently splitting the right-wing vote in Makerfield, which could cost Reform the seat.

Restore has rapidly grown in popularity since it officially launched in February.

Lowe has developed a huge Facebook following of 1.2 million in recent months, more than double the number who follow prime minister Keir Starmer on the platform.

Vowing to deliver on mass deportations, “net-negative” migration and completely rejecting the alleged “Islamification of Britain”, Lowe is making waves on the right-wing online circuit even appearing on a filmed podcast with famous American conservative, Tucker Carlson.

By avoiding much of the mainstream media, Lowe also seems to be speaking to the same base that Reform previously focused on: the anti-establishment crowd.

Far-right activist Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), was prohibited from joining Reform due to his extreme views but is now an open Restore supporter.

By contrast, Farage’s party has come under fire for accepting more than 26 ex-Conservative MPs to their ranks.

Research director at anti-fascist organisation Hope Not Hate, Joe Mulhall, told HuffPost UK that this by-election demonstrates how Restore has evolved.

The far-right party has transformed from being an “online annoyance” – which allowed Farage to paint himself as “more mainstream political force” in comparison – to a “more of an electoral threat” to Reform.

“The wake-up call was in the May elections in Great Yarmouth, where Restore picked up all nine seats it ran in,” the expert said, adding that Restore claiming to have more than 130,000 members now.

That’s less than half the 278,000 members Reform claims to have, but Restore’s numbers are still significant as it proves it has more support than the British National Party or the National Front ever secured.

As UK director of More in Common, Luke Tryl, told HuffPost UK: “Makerfield could be the first real test of the threat level that Restore Britain presents to Reform UK.

“Our polling and focus group research indicates that voters’ awareness of Restore is largely limited to those who are highly engaged online, on social media platforms such as Facebook.

“Awareness among this group, however, is significant and if it continues to grow and translates into a meaningful number of votes, that could prove a problem for Reform.

“In this new political landscape of electoral fragmentation, even a small share of the vote could be decisive. If Restore can turn online noise into action at the ballot box, Reform could discover there’s a real threat emerging to their right.”

Reform seem rather self-conscious about this threat, too, judging by their bizarre interactions with the media and online this week.

The party seemed more rattled over Restore’s success than concerned by their candidate Robert Kenyon’s controversial internet history.

Farage ended up attacking X owner and world’s richest man Elon Musk after he promoted Restore on social media, writing: “Only Restore Britain can save Britain.”

The Reform leader claimed the tech tycoon was trying to “split the right of British politics as best he can”, adding: “Quite what he’s trying to achieve, I have no idea.”

Then Reform MP Sarah Pochin accidentally called her own party by their rivals’ name during a live interview with TALK, before adding in pure panic: “Oh god! I’ll be sacked for saying that!” 

Tensions ratcheted up even further when the party’s Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick was asked to differentiate Reform’s policies from Restore’s.

He told Sky News Reform will not deport foreign nationals who live in social housing, unlike Lowe’s party.

But he was swiftly undermined by Reform’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, who wrote on X: “Robert’s answer is not Reform policy.”

He insisted: “If a foreign national lives in social housing at taxpayer expense, they automatically fail our economic test and will be deported.” 

Reform insiders have suggested that they are rather uneasy about their chances in Makerfield now. 

HuffPost UK understands that Reform believes Restore’s vote is negligible, but a party insider warned the race “is going to be really tight so every vote counts”.

They predict the difference between first and second place could be one or two percentage points, but have completely ruled out the idea of a deal with their rivals.

They’re also hoping Labour will lose some support to the Green Party, which could split the left-wing vote and bolster their efforts.

Meanwhile, Restore is basking in its first major moment in the spotlight and enjoying its role as potential kingmaker.

Lowe’s team did not reply when approached for comment by HuffPost UK, but the party leader was very dismissive towards his rivals in an interview with the Spectator.

He said: “I would have helped Nigel become prime minister but I don’t think he is fit to become prime minister. My personal opinion is that he is managed opposition. 

“I think that if you look at the mainstream media, it is now pushing Nigel... so I’m not really interested in Reform.”

Even as Lowe plays it cool, his success could end up pulling Reform further right, Mulhall said.

He told HuffPost UK that Restore itself is “quite an unstable coalition” and a “ragbag collection of very extreme individuals” who are pretty far removed from most of the British public.

He pointed out that it currently attracts both those slightly to the right of Reform all the way to “racial nationalists”.

“Where it ends up, and how long it lasts, and how long those individuals kind of put their differences aside in the interest of Restore – rather than breaking out into civil wars – is an unknown question,” he said.

But, even if the party itself does not have a long shelf-life, it has already managed to seep into Reform’s policy-making.

“Reform’s policy on mass deportation isn’t actually that far away now from where Lowe’s position was when he was booted out,” Mulhall said. “Especially on the issue of immigration, deportation and demographics, I think you’re starting to see Reform feeling they have to shift right, trying to hold onto that rightward flank.”

He insisted that it was “wishful thinking” that the two parties might end up taking one another down.

However he added: “Restore has the ability to take a chunk out of Farage’s vote share but it has a very clear ceiling in a way Reform does not.”

There’s no doubt that Reform has been rattled by the rise of its rival, but it will be hard to fully assess Restore Britain’s impact until Makerfield voters flock to the ballot box on June 18. 

Will Farage be able to hold his nerve until then, or will he find himself adopting further right-wing strategies in a bid to stop the Restore bleed?

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

The UK just experienced a record-breaking heatwave, which included a “tropical night”.

These sweaty sleeping conditions, which mean “the temperature does not fall below 20°C” per The Met Office, can be extremely damaging to our slumber. One paper found that while all hot weather is bad for our kip, heatwaves can snatch away more minutes of shut-eye than other warm conditions. 

We’ve written before about why you shouldn’t sleep naked in a heatwave, as well as how the experts survive sweltering nights.

But what about the best sleep position for toasty temps?

The best sleep position for hot weather 

Speaking to The Times, sleep consultant Alison Jones said side-sleeping is probably your best bet.

“Sleeping on your side exposes more of your body to the air, allowing heat to dissipate more effectively and helping to prevent temperature-related disturbance,” she explained. 

The expert isn’t alone in making the recommendation. 

Speaking to Tom’s Guide, sleep posture expert James Leinhardt said: “The part of your body that gives off the most heat includes your forehead, closely followed by the area at the bottom of your spine”. 

He added that when you sleep on your back, there’s no room for this heat to escape: lying on your side means you’ll have the “least amount of contact with the bed, so the heat will naturally rise much quicker than if you’re lying on your back”. 

Which is the best side to sleep on?

It turns out that the side you choose might matter, too. 

Dr Abhinav Singh, a sleep medicine physician, told The Sleep Foundation that sleeping on your left side can help you to stay asleep if you experience stomach issues like heartburn or indigestion at night. 

That’s because the stomach is curved; a lot of the acid-containing bulk lies on your left side, meaning it’s harder for the material to escape into your oesophagus when you adapt the position. 

Some research suggests up to 10% of us could face GERD at night, which negatively affects sleep and can sometimes create a vicious cycle.

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It’s social season, which means you’ll be hard stretched to find a weekend over the next few months where you won’t have a drink in your hand the whole time. You’ve gotta stay hydrated, after all! 

While the appeal of an Aperol is inescapable, it might shock you to know there are other seasonal drinks out there. 

As someone who always has to have at least three drinks on the go, this is a topic I take seriously.

From soda, to spritzes, and wine, I’ve taken it upon myself to test the newest releases and tried and tested favourites that make excellent summer sips.

Keep reading for my selection of the best non-alcoholic and alcoholic summer drinks (so far...).

Best non-alcoholic summer drinks

Best alcoholic summer drinks

Did you know cola is made with a kola nut? The ingredient, which is from Africa, is where the fizzy drink gets its caffeine from. 

Of course, some cola brands keep the other parts of their recipe top-secret. But why do beverages made by the same company seem to taste different in a glass bottle, can, and plastic bottle? 

Well, according to Rowland King, a director at the glass bottles supplier, Quality Bottles, there’s real science behind the difference.

Why does cola taste different in a glass bottle vs a can or plastic bottle? 

First, there’s the chemistry of each material to consider. 

“Glass is chemically inert and non-porous, which means it doesn’t react with the drink or absorb flavour compounds,” King said.

“That helps keep the taste exactly as intended from the moment it’s filled to the moment it’s opened”. 

Some experts think the polymer lining of tinned fizzy drinks can lead to a milder taste, while it’s possible that acetaldehyde in plastic bottles could affect the flavour.

And carbonation (bubbles) matter, too, King added. 

“Fizzy drinks rely on dissolved CO₂ for their bite and freshness. Over time, plastic is slightly permeable to gas, even when sealed.

“Glass isn’t, so carbonation is typically retained more consistently, which can noticeably affect the taste and how it feels to drink.” 

The screw or crown caps commonly used on glass bottles provide a tighter seal, too, allowing less CO2 to escape.

“Bottle shape also comes into it,” King continued. 

“A narrow bottleneck concentrates aroma and slows down how quickly the drink hits the palate. That subtly changes the flavour perception compared to drinking from a wide can opening or pouring into a cup.” 

Then, there’s temperature to consider 

I personally love an ice-cold can of diet cola – sometimes called a “fridge cigarette” – because I feel like it stays cooler and crisper than plastic bottles. 

But King explained, “Glass bottles are thicker and tend to chill more evenly and stay cold a bit longer once removed from the fridge. Since temperature strongly affects flavour perception, that alone can make the drink seem more refreshing.” 

Of course, companies try their hardest to make their product taste as consistent as possible across a range of containers, King stated. 

But, he ended, “material science is material science. The container does make a difference, especially with carbonated drinks”. 

Many years ago, it began. I noticed tiny, flesh-coloured bumps on my fingers ― they itched so badly I was tempted to bite my hand (no, really), an urge which only subsided when the little blisters finally burst and flaked. 

Then, a month later, the process started again. It’s happened about once every six weeks since.

If that sounds familiar, you might be struggling with a condition called dishydrotic eczema, or pompholyx. 

What is pompholyx?

It’s a cluster of small blisters that form on your hands or feet. 

They’re very small, extremely itchy, and might leak fluid for the first couple of weeks (oh, good). 

After the blisters burst, people with the condition are usually left with dry, scaly, potentially broken skin. This is when the risk of infection is at its highest, as the skin barrier has been broken down. 

The whole process usually takes about two to three weeks, the NHS says. 

According to the National Eczema Society, “This condition can occur at any age but is usually seen in adults under 40, and is more common in women.” 

We don’t know exactly what causes it, but some people think it could flare up during times of stress, due to excess heat and sweating, and/or sensitivity to metals like nickel, cobalt or chromate. 

Half of people with the condition either have atopic eczema or a family history of it too. 

You should see your doctor if you think you have pompholyx, partly because symptoms like it can be caused by conditions like hand, foot, and mouth disease. 

That’s one of the reasons why the NHS says you shouldn’t try to diagnose yourself with the condition.

How can I soothe pompholyx?

Unfortunately, the condition is chronic for most people who have it, and there’s no cure yet.

Soaking your hands in potassium permanganate if they’re weeping or oozing may help, as can using an emollient moisturiser.

Sometimes, a GP will perscribe steroid creams to stop the itching, though these are only used for a few weeks at a time.

If you have the condition, the NHS says you can try to:

• wash your hands with warm (not hot or cold) water and use a moisturiser (emollient) soap substitute instead of regular soap

• wear protective gloves (ideally with a cotton lining) when using chemicals like shampoos, cleansers and detergents

• wear socks, tights or stockings made from cotton or silk, rather than nylon

• wear shoes made from leather, rather than plastic or rubber

• avoid anything you think causes your symptoms, such as cleansers or detergents. 

See a GP if you have signs of pompholyx, if you suspect infection, and/or if you notice any other changes to your skin. 

If you had to guess what the secret behind that distinctively malty Biscoff flavour is, you probably wouldn’t say sugar ― but that’s likely what it is. 

Similarly, red velvet cake’s earthy, tender flavour isn’t created by crimson berries or beetroot; traditionally, it’s the action of buttermilk and vinegar on Dutch-processed cocoa and baking soda that gives it its signature taste and hue. 

It also contains vanilla. 

So, it shouldn’t have shocked me that cola’s taste is partly down to an unexpected source; namely, the kola nut (yes, there is such a thing). 

What’s a kola nut, and what other flavours are involved?

According to beverage company StrangeLove, “cola brands guard their own secret formulas with their lives, using generic terms such as ‘artificial and natural flavours.’” 

Talk of Coca-Cola’s top-secret “7X” ingredient seems to confirm such theories.

Nonetheless, some ingredients stay constant, StrangeLove explains. 

“Cola generally is a carbonated beverage which consists of these key ingredients; kola nut, citrus oils, vanilla and cinnamon,” they say. 

This is usually mixed with a caramel base for that slightly sticky, moreish texture. 

Kola nuts contain caffeine and are from tropical regions of Africa, Britannica says. 

They look a little like the lovechild of chestnuts and cocoa beans. 

They’re dried in the sun before being used in products like soft drinks and medicine, though Britannica says that “American and European soft-drink manufacturers, however, do not use the kola nut; instead, they manufacture synthetic chemicals that resemble the flavour of the kola nut.” 

Nonetheless, “kola concentrate” is listed in Coca-Cola’s EU ingredients.

Anything else? 

Given how secretive the biggest cola brand ― Coca-Cola ― has been about its 7x ingredient, many have speculated about what’s really in the world’s favourite fizzy drink.

A surprising amount of people use coriander seed in their attempted Coca-Cola remakes, alongside cassia (also known as Chinese cinnamon) and lavender.

Coca-Cola inventor John Pemberton is said to have written a recipe into his diary before he died that included lavender, coca leaves, alcohol, coca leaves, orange, cinnamon, lemon, coriander, nutmeg, neroli, and of course 7x.

Of course, the recipe has since changed ― it no longer contains alcohol and certainly uses no coca leaves, so it’s likely other elements have been switched as well. 

Given that the brand won’t even let the two people who know how to mix 7x on the same plane at the same time in case it crashes, I don’t reckon we’ll be certain any time soon...

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Ah, summer. The season of lying around in the grass, dripping with sweat, and spending hours exasperating over what to pack.

At least, if you’re me. As a chronic overpacker, I consistently struggle to choose the right suitcase for holiday.

Even for weekends away, a mere weekend bag isn’t enough to contain the belongings I tell myself I’ll definitely use, wear, or need.

Naturally, that means I’m constantly looking for a suitcase that has just the right amount of storage, isn’t too heavy, won’t make that annoying sound when you drag it, and has all the compartments I need to pretend I’m organised.

Ahead of the holidays I have planned this summer, I made it my job (as in, it is my job) to find the best suitcases – both carry on, and checked – that make packing and travelling easier. 

Keep reading for my selection.

How I chose the best suitcases

Myself and the HuffPost team tested a range of suitcases to assess which would make our pre-holiday planning more manageable. Those we couldn’t test ourselves were crowdsourced through reviews from friends, family, and customers. 

In each case (geddit?) we considered its size, whether it was carry-on or checked, how efficient its wheels were, what pockets it included, whether it came with a warranty and for how long, whether it was protective, its capacity, and any added extras like waterproof rating, locks, and battery packs.

Our favourites are listed below.

The best suitcases to shop now

Did you know airlines love Biscoff? 

Brett Snyder, the president of flying-focused blog Cranky Flier, told Conde Nast Traveller: “You want to avoid anything that requires a specific temperature. The default snack of choice used to be peanuts, but all the concerns about allergy really quashed that one.”

You also need “something that’s either salty or sweet to really get people’s taste buds working — which they do differently at altitude than they do on the ground,” he added. 

But what is that distinctive Biscoff flavour to begin with?

At first, I thought it was something like malt; but their ingredients list doesn’t include that. 

I found out that spices aside, their real secret is sugar. 

But don’t all biscuits have sugar?

You’d be right there ― but it’s about how they cook it. 

The company’s own site lists “the distinctive caramelised” profile as a cause of its “unique taste and crunchiness of Biscoff.” 

That tracks. Jan Boone Sr., who invented the cookie, was the first to create “a caramelised biscuit with nothing but natural ingredients” in 1932, Lotus says.

The biscuit’s modern-day ingredients are listed as “Wheat flour, Sugar, Vegetable oils (contains one or more of soybean oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, palm oil), Brown sugar syrup, Sodium bicarbonate (leavening), Soy flour, Salt, Cinnamon.” 

That “brown sugar syrup” may be doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to the distinctive flavour profile of the cookie ― when you mix it with a fat like sunflower oil, it becomes a kind of caramel. 

No, really, a LOT of it is the sugar

The more I look into this, the more seriously I realise Belgians (Lotus was invented by a Belgian baker) take sugar. 

Speaking to The Guardian about speculaas, or speculoos, an early progenitor of Lotus, Belgian food writer Regula Ysewijn described the complexities of Belgium’s sweet stuff.

She uses a type which is hard to get in the UK called kandij, “white beet sugar slowly and repeatedly heated until it caramelises and crystallises,” in her speculoos recipes. 

“In Belgium… sugar cane was historically unavailable, leading sugar beet refiners to develop a different sort of brown sugar, one made with refined sucrose and caramel,” pastry chef Stella Parks told Serious Eats.

“So, instead of the acidic, malty, slightly bitter, and vaguely fruity taste of molasses, Belgian brown sugar gives Biscoff a backbone of caramel flavour.” 

She also cites Ceylon cinnamon as a cause of its instantly recognisable taste. 

Who knew?

Vladimir Putin does “not care too much” if Russian weapons end up hitting Ukraine’sNato neighbours, according to a former UK security chief.

One of Russia’s drones crashed into a Romanian apartment block in the city of Galati and injured two people overnight.

The move was condemned by EU leaders as “blatant and serious violation”, while Nato leader Mark Rutte warned: “Russia’s reckless behaviour is a danger to us all.”

Romania president Nicusor Dan said the incident was the “most serious” to have impacted his country since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Romania, a Nato country which borders Ukraine, expelled the Russian consul from its city of Constanta as a result.

The Kremlin has already threatened its own response to that diplomatic move, claiming the retaliation would not be “long in coming”.

But former national security adviser Lord Peter Ricketts told BBC Radio 4′s World At One that Russian leader Putin will not be concerned about rattling Nato.

He said while it looks like this particular incident was not an “intentional attack” on Romania, “I’m not sure Putin cares too much”.

Ricketts added: “He thinks it is a reminder to western countries, to Nato, what Russia is capable of.”

It’s part of a whole “spectrum” of Russian activity to “try and disturb Nato countries,” Ricketts said.

He pointed to the civilian building in Poland which was hit with no casualties in September last year, and the multitude of drones which have crashed in the countryside of Ukraine’s neighbours. 

Ricketts said: “This was a disaster waiting to happen. There’s been a whole series of incursions by Russian drones and aircrafts into Nato airspace over the last couple of years.”

He added: “Some of those must be intentional. They are probing Nato to see how Nato responds, first of all [with] relatively low-level incursion but then implying that Russia could do more if they chose to do so.”

“It is just another demonstration of how reckless the Russians are, continuing to fire hundreds and hundreds of Russian drones at Ukrainian targets, and honestly, I think not really caring when they malfunction and land on Nato territory,” the former security chief continued.

“The most effective response of course is to get this war over, to ensure Ukraine comes out of the war strong, and to stop Russian aggression.

“In the shorter term, the EU and Nato are both scrambling to develop programmes for counter drone defences, better detection, better capabilities to shoot them down – and of course, the experts on that are the Ukrainians who are having to do it every night.”

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Ian Blackford stunned online critics after he came up with a strange explanation for former first minister of ScotlandNicola Sturgeon’s ignorance about her estranged husband’s embezzlement crimes.

Peter Murrell, chief executive of the Scottish National Party between 2001 and 2023, pleaded guilty to taking more than £400,000 from the SNP this week.

He has been charged with embezzling funds from the party between August 2010 and October 2022.

Murrell was arrested as part of Operation Branchform, a Police Scotland probe into the party’s finances, in 2023, and charged in April 2024. 

He has been remanded in custody and is set to be sentenced at the end of June.

He made a series of extravagant purchases while he was SNP chief, including a £124,550 campervan for his own personal use.

His estranged wife Sturgeon was also arrested in 2024 and questioned by detectives, but was never charged with any offences.

Sturgeon, who led Scotland from 2014 until 2023, has insisted she “did not know at all” about her husband’s crimes and that she has been “deceived, misled, lied to and betrayed”.

The ex-SNP leader, who separated from her partner in January 2025, revealed that this has been the “worst week of my life”.

Speaking at Listowel Writers’ Week in Co Kerry, Sturgeon said she was not aware of many of the luxury products Murrell had bought, including three coffee machines worth over £1,000 each.

Explaining how she did not notice such purchases, the former first minister of Scotland said: “We were two people on high salaries, no kids. I was doing a job – and this is another factor – I was doing a job that had me working around the clock, away from home a lot of the time.

“Maybe this doesn’t reflect well on me: I didn’t spend a lot of time in my kitchen – spend any time in my kitchen – but I would never question that some of these things he was buying that I was aware of he couldn’t have afforded, because on the basis of our incomes he could have afforded it.”

Blackford, who worked as the SNP’s Westminster leader from 2017 and 2022, told Times Radio: “I know Nicola very well, she’s a friend of mine.

“Nicola does not have a passion for cooking, it’s not something that she does, so I think that explanation is one that I absolutely can understand.”

“She’s given her explanation, I’m satisfied with the explanation, she’s not someone who would normally spend that much time in the kitchen,” he said.

That explanation went down like a lead balloon on social media, with many criticising the “bizarre” and “insane” response...

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Over the last decade, Ariana Grande has become renowned for her confessional approach to songwriting, whether she’s singing about personal tragedy, heartbreak or the public’s misconceptions about her as a person.

And on her new single Hate That I Made You Love Me, it seems the Grammy winner has a couple more things to get off her chest.

The Wicked star kicked off a new era in her music career on Friday morning with the lead single from her upcoming eighth album Petal.

Ostensibly a break-up song reflecting on a past relationship, it’s already beenspeculated bymany fans that on Hate That I Made You Love Me, Ariana is actually singing about complicated feelings about fame, celebrity, her own public persona and the parasocial relationships between a performer and their audience on her new musical offering.

“Tell me, why is it this way? Why you so hate to see women endure?” she sings in the bridge, before continuing: “Is it really my fault you all gave me your hearts of your own accord? I don’t really think so.”

She also laments on the chorus: “I hate that I made you love me. Sorry if I made you my type. I hate that I made you love me. ’Cause I barely tried.”

Elsewhere on the song, she questions: “What’s happening now? You studied my crown and borrowed my body.

“Warm, kissed by the sun, then cold likе the wind, a bee stuck in honey.”

Have a listen to Hate That I Made You Love Me below:

Ariana previously described Hate That I Made You Love Me as “one of my favourite songs i’ll ever give to you, the greatest fans in the entire world”.

“I’m so grateful for all of the art, moments, songs we have shared,” she told her fans. “I can’t wait for this next chapter and all of the surprises I have for you.”

The music video for Hate That I Made You Love Me, starring actor Justin Long, is also due to premiere next week.

Petals will follow on 31 July, and has been described by Ariana as being “full of life” and inspired by “growing” in light of “cold and hard and challenging” life experiences.

Before that, though, Ariana is due to embark on a world tour, the European leg of which will consist of just 10 nights at London’s O2 Arena. 

Following this, the Oscar nominee has teased that it could be some time before she goes on the road again.

If you’ve flown to a Schengen country as a non-EU citizen recently, you might have been confronted with long lines and even cancelled flights. 

That’s because the new Entry/Exit System (EES) rules have become fully operational, and require all eligible passengers who haven’t done so yet to provide new data like fingerprints. 

While the passstays valid for three years, signing multiple passengers up to the system for the first time all at once has led to chaos in some airports. 

But this was step one of enabling another EU security system called the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), set to start operations in the final quarter of 2026.

What is ETIAS? 

It’s a visa waiver system that’s linked to people’s passports. The BBC reported that it will build on the EES; The Independent explained that it depends on the EES being fully operational.

“Starting from the last quarter of 2026, some 1.4 billion people from 59 visa-exempt countries and territories are required to have a travel authorisation to enter 30 European countries for a short stay,” ETIAS’ site reads.

It’s a permit that some people from “third-country visa-free nations”, which includes the UK after Brexit, will have to obtain before short stays in Schengen countries. It’s been compared to the US ESTA scheme.

ETIAS is meant to increase border security.

How can I tell if I need to make an ETIAS application? 

Per the EU, “UK nationals [will be] required to have a valid Etias travel authorisation if they travel to any of the European countries requiring Etias for a short-term stay (90 days in any 180-day period).”

Which countries will require ETIAS passes? 

1. Austria,
2. Belgium,
3. Bulgaria,
4. Croatia,
5. Cyprus,
6. Czechia,
7. Denmark,
8. Estonia,
9. Finland,
10. France,
11. Germany,
12. Greece, 
13. Hungary,
14. Iceland,
15. Italy,
16. Latvia,
17. Liechtenstein,
18. Lithuania,
19. Luxembourg,
20. Malta,
21. Netherlands,
22. Norway,
23. Poland,
24. Portugal,
25. Romania,
26. Slovakia,
27. Slovenia,
28. Spain,
29. Sweden, and
30. Switzerland.

Ireland is excluded from the list. UK passport holders will need an ETIAS to access Gibraltar.

How long before travel will I have to make my ETIAS application?

The application should be processed in “minutes,” ETIAS’ site said, though they warned it could take longer – up to 30 days if they decide to interview you based on your application. 

“This is why you should apply for an ETIAS travel authorisation well in advance of your planned journey,” they said.

In fact, the EU said, it’s best to apply “before you buy your ticket or book your accommodation”.

How much does it cost?

It will cost €20 (£17) to complete the forms. 

How long will my ETIAS pass last? 

It lasts for three years or until your passport expires, whichever comes first. 

Because ETIAS passes will be linked to people’s passports, the EU has said that “If you get a new passport, you need to get a new ETIAS travel authorisation.”

When will ETIAS come into force for UK fliers? 

That’s a bit vague at the moment. Though the ETIAS site says the scheme will “start operations in the last quarter of 2026,” that doesn’t mean it’ll be roundly enforced by that date. 

The EU have not set a specific start point in stone yet: “The European Union will inform about the specific date for the start of ETIAS several months prior to its launch”. 

“The launch of ETIAS will be followed by a transitional period of at least six months,” the EU added. That means UK fliers can expect rule changes in April 2027 at the earliest. 

Then, there’s a six-month, one-time “grace period” for fliers “coming to Europe for the first time since the end of the transitional period”.

These “will be allowed to enter without an ETIAS provided they fulfil all remaining entry conditions. All other travellers will be refused entry if they do not hold an ETIAS travel authorisation”. 

You can only take advantage of this once, however, on your first post-ETIAS flight.

How will people apply to ETIAS? 

You’ll apply using the official ETIAS website or the ETIAS app. No non-Internet option is mentioned on ETIAS’s site.

What will happen after I apply? 

Applicants will be given a number which you are advised to keep for future reference.

Your data will be checked against various databases, including those from the RU and Interpol. 

You’ll be given an email explaining the outcome of your application once it’s been processed.

If you’ve been denied entry, the email will explain why and will give you information on how to appeal.

Do I need to bring my ETIAS pass with me separately? 

No – it’s linked to travel documents like your passport. 

That’s why you need to make sure its details are consistent with those on your ETIAS application. 

When your passport is checked at the border, your ETIAS status will be too.

A successful application doesn’t guarantee entry, either: “When you arrive at the border, border guards will verify that you meet the entry conditions. Those travellers who do not meet the entry conditions will be refused entry.” 

Reform UK’sMakerfield candidate previously praised the last Labour government in unearthed comments seen by HuffPost UK.

Robert Kenyon is standing against Labour candidate and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham in the crunch Makerfield by-election.

Kenyon was once pretty positive about Labour’s changes in office – which former minister Burnham had been a part of.

He claimed “god knows where I would have ended up” without the government’s apprenticeship initiatives. 

In posts dating back to 2013 on a since-deleted forum for rugby fans, he wrote: “If it weren’t for the last Labour Government god knows where I would have ended up, without their Asset Training Scheme I wouldn’t have been able to complete my apprenticeship which was funded by the Government at the cost of £50 a week payed [sic] to me which they invested well and now I don’t need to rely on them.

“Like I said, the benefits system needs overhauling massively to rid the idle from the taxpayers hard earned but first the opportunity to get into work and training must be implemented but somehow I can’t see the Tories doing that.”

A Reform UK spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “Rob represents the tens of thousands of formerly loyal Labour voters in Makerfield that the party has since abandoned. Labour has completely betrayed its traditional working-class northern base who are now backing Reform UK in their droves.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “It’s good to hear that Robert Kenyon is proud of the work of the last Labour government. So are we.

“From lifting hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty, to introducing the minimum wage, Labour is building on that proud legacy today.

“While Reform focus on spreading toxic division and Robert Kenyon is mired in scandal, Labour’s Andy Burnham is focused on delivering on local people’s priorities and bringing communities together.”

Kenyon has attracted plenty of scrutiny after his internet presence has been unearthed in the days since he was announced as Reform’s Makerfield candidate.

He said women can’t “ref, drive or give directions” on an online rugby fan forum in the 2010s, and claimed women presenting rugby games on TV “aren’t up to the job and only there to tick a box”, adding: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”

He also claimed women get abortions for “vanity purposes” so they can “shag anyone they want” and described gay people as “poofs” who “mince about” on TV.

The Wigan councillor also once cast doubt on the Covid vaccine on his now-deleted X account, saying: “It’s not making people sicker, I’ve no booster and had covid last week asymptomatic.”

He suggested he did not vote for Brexit too, writing on social media in 2019: “So anyone who thinks I love Trump, voted Brexit, read the Daily Mail, live in the 1950s, a Tory and 103 is wrong. I’m none of the above.”

In another forum post from 2014, he said: “Russia are well within their rights to do what they have done as we did with the Falklands.”

Anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate also revealed that in 2021 Kenyon interacted with a social media message sent to the Countdown host, which read: “Happy birthday Carol, my God I would love to smell and lick your arsehole.”

Kenyon replied, “he’s only saying what we’re all thinking,” along with a thumbs up and a laughing emoji.

In response to the backlash about Vorderman, Kenyon told Manchester Evening News: “I’m not a polished politician.

“I am rough around the edges. I have made mistakes in my life. I’m not perfect. Nobody is. Not a single person in the world is perfect. 

“I think everybody does say things that eventually they regret.”

Touching on the Vorderman backlash, Kenyon said: “It was a crude attempt at a joke to probably about 50 followers.

“No offence was meant, and it’s not something I’d do now.”

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If there’s one thing the rise of the wellness industry has taught us, it’s that there are a million and one ways to influence your mood.

You could start going for daily runs, each kimchi and other ferments to transform your gut health, or even meditate before bed.

Now, admittedly, those things are time-consuming, expensive, and, frankly, require way too much effort.

While there are a whole host of different ways to reconnect with your senses and sink into your body, one that’s often ignored is scent.

There is plenty of research that shows that scent has a direct impact on our nervous system, and therefore our mood.

You might already put your signature perfume on every day, or light a scented candle to cover nasty cooking smells. But PartyLite has found a science-backed way to impact your mood through scent.

Its new room spray collection comes in six scents – Happy, Mysterious, Passionate, Calm, Renewed, and Optimistic – and each formulated to activate and enhance your mood.

It’s not just guesswork, either. PartyLite uses neuroscience-backed Actimood technology to spark positive emotional responses in your brain. 

The patented formula relies on the fact that 75% of our emotions are impacted by smell, using a carefully selected blend of essential oils to make sure each fragrance matches your mood to your environment.

And it doesn’t stop there: PartyLite even uses colour psychology to make sure its packaging boosts your mood. 

Its sprays are long-lasting, non-toxic, and cruelty free. The best part of all is that a bottle will set you back less than £12. So if you can’t be bothered to spend months, or to splash out tons of cash to improve your mood, PartyLite is a science-backed way to align your inner world with your surroundings.

The best PartyLite room sprays to shop now

Dame Helen Mirren has shown her “love” for MobLand co-star Tom Hardy amid reports about his future in the show.

The two British actors appeared alongside one another in the Paramount+ crime drama, with filming on the second run of episodes having wrapped earlier this year.

However, over the last week, it’s been heavily rumoured that the Dark Knight Rises star will not be returning for season three.

Earlier this month, Variety reported that Tom “was not asked to return to the series” following supposed disputes with executive producer Jez Butterworth.

While not commenting on the rumours directly, Dame Helen did allude to the drama in an Instagram post shared on Thursday evening.

Posting a picture of Tom, she wrote: “Love you now and always [...] Helen.”

Comments had notably been turned off on the post, which was uploaded days after footage of Dame Helen being confronted by a pro-Palestine demonstrator over her past support of Israel was posted online.

On Thursday, Variety posted a follow-up piece suggesting that Tom had, in fact, not been fired from MobLand, citing an undisclosed “source close to production” who apparently told them that “the door is not closed for season three and things are being worked through creatively”.

HuffPost UK has contacted representatives for both Tom Hardy and the streaming service Paramount+ for comment.

The first season of MobLand premiered last year, quickly becoming one of Paramount+’s biggest shows.

As well as Dame Helen and Tom, the show also features big names including Pierce Brosnan, Paddy Considine, Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt and Bafta winner Toby Jones among its cast, with Guy Ritchie on both executive producing and directing duties.

While Tom’s return seemingly remains up in the air, shooting on the third season of MobLand is reported by Variety to be getting underway in the autumn.

Critics have condemned a new Trump White House webpage that targets immigrants, slamming it as “disgraceful” and “dehumanising.”

The White House spent some of the day teasing online what appeared to be an announcement related to extraterrestrials.

It posted crypticmessages on X before unveiling a new website, Aliens.gov.

It then shared a video showing an alien spacecraft beaming up a person from one side of what appears to be the US-Mexico border fence, carrying them over the barrier and dropping them on the other side.

It was set, partially, to The Village People’s YMCA song, a Trump favourite.

See the post here.

“They walk among us,” the White House captioned the clip, directing users to the new website.

The home page of the website read:

“THEY WALK AMONG US.

For 60 years, the U.S. government has kept a closely guarded secret.

Aliens have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods, and interacting with us in our daily lives.

They’ve shopped in the same stores, attended the same classes as our children, and lived seemingly normal human existences.

With one exception — they do not belong here.

Millions arrived under the cover of darkness and embedded themselves directly into our society.

Countless presidents, congressmen, and senior officials knew exactly what was happening.

Instead of protecting American citizens, they chose to cover it up and even accelerate the invasion.

Until one man finally had the courage to tell the truth.

Bold. Unapologetic. Unafraid.

President Trump was the first to call out the real danger Aliens pose to every American family, every community, and the future of our nation.

The truth is no longer out there. It is right here. Right now.”

Another section said:

“If you’ve witnessed an Alien abduction, do not be alarmed.

The Alien is in good hands.

We will take care of it… and return it safely to its place of origin.”

And a mock “classified addendum” stated:

“THEY WEREN’T LITTLE GREEN MEN.

These “Aliens” are the millions of ILLEGALS who invaded our country under the cover of darkness.

President Trump told the truth. The cover-up is over.
Secure the border. Deport them all.”

The page also featured what it claimed to be a live “Alien Arrest Map” tracker, lists detailing how many people have been detained in each city and the reason why, and a link to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency tip line to report “suspicious aliens.”

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) slammed the post, responding: “Still looking for intelligent life in the White House.”

Others suggested it was an attempt to distract Americans from the Epstein Files, the documents relating to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a onetime close associate of President Donald Trump.

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The BBC’s Question Time programme has raised eyebrows over scenes depicting Fiona Bruce sitting among historical figures recreated with generative AI technology.

On Thursday night, Question Time aired an artificial intelligence special, which opened with Fiona introducing her guests for the evening, including AI-generated images of former prime minister Winston Churchill and pioneering artist Frida Kahlo.

AI renderings of Emmeline Pankhurst and Mahatma Gandhi were also included (a Radio Times article previewing the special also featured Che Guevara on this line-up, though this was ultimately not part of the broadcast).

Before the episode aired, a clip of the scene in question was posted on Question Time’s social media accounts, and was quickly met with backlash from viewers who took issue with the BBC for a variety of reasons, not least the ethical questions about recreating dead people’s likeness using AI and the technology’s impact on the environment.

During the actual broadcast, Fiona Bruce was quick to point out that the opening scene was actually a stunt to highlight the capabilities of generative AI.

“That really would be something, wouldn’t it? If that was our actual panel. Of course, it’s not. It’s AI generated, and just gives us a tiny insight into the use of this technology,” she told viewers, before introducing the previously-announced “human panel” of experts from the world of tech. 

However, even before people were made aware of Question Time’s AI-generated opening skit, many had still taken issue with its “AI special”, which they claimed didn’t represent a balanced view of the contentious tech, due to the fact that everyone involved was seemingly in favour of it.

A BBC spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “This week’s panel explored the opportunities, risks and moral dilemmas posed by artificial intelligence, with a range of views represented.

“Both our panelists and audience members raised a range of issues around the use of AI including the opening question on its impact on the job market, as well as its effects on mental health, data and image theft, and the environment.”

Last year, Channel 4’s Dispatches programme faced a similar backlash when it aired a special episode about AI, which was later revealed to have been fronted by a “host” generated entirely with artificial intelligence technology.

Channel 4’s head of news and current affairs said at the time: “This stunt does serve as a useful reminder of just how disruptive AI has the potential to be – and how easy it is to hoodwink audiences with content they have no way of verifying.”

Johannes Radebe is opening up about his upcoming role as one Strictly Come Dancing’s new presenters.

The South African performer, who joined the BBC dance show as one of its resident pros in 2018, was announced last week as part of its new hosting team, alongside TV personality Emma Willis and comedian Josh Widdicombe.

Johannes has become a fan favourite since taking to the ballroom, thanks to his partnerships with celebs like chef John Whaite, tennis player Annabel Croft and actor Alex Kingston.

So, the news about his new role has left his fans understandably concerned about whether or not they’ll get to see him dancing on this year’s series.

Fortunately, Johannes has now assured them that they needn’t have worried.

Speaking to his new co-star Emma on her Radio 2 show, Johannes insisted that he is “not hanging up” his dancing shoes just yet.

“I will definitely be throwing some shapes and moving my hips,” he enthused. “I can’t not, that’s my life. For it to be just taken away would be a travesty for me.”

He added: “There’s a plan in action, that’s all I’m going to say. You’re going to see JoJo!”

So, while Jojo most likely won’t have a celebrity partner this time around, you won’t be able to keep the dancer off the ballroom. Hopefully, he’ll still be involved in pro routines during the main show and Sunday results, too.

When Johannes’ new role on the Saturday night entertainment show was first announced, he said: “To be returning to Strictly Come Dancing in this new role is beyond anything I ever imagined.

“This show has always stood for joy, heart, and togetherness, and I feel deeply honoured to now help carry that magic forward.”

Before he takes over from Claudia and Tess as a Strictly host, Johannes is currently starring as the glamorous drag queen Lola in the musical Kinky Boots, which runs at the London Coliseum until 11 July.

Strictly Come Dancing returns in the autumn on BBC One.

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If there’s anything to make you realise you need a new bed set-up, it’s this inescapable sweltering heat. 

Mattresses can get sweaty, and you might find your sheets soaked in one night (a nightmare if you find changing your sheets a snoozefest). 

In other words, it may be time for an upgrade. According to The Sleep Foundation, you’ll need to replace your mattress every six to eight years, or if it’s negatively impacting your sleep.

Well, here’s some good news for you: whether you’re in the market to replace your mattress or just want a fresher sleeping sitch, Emma currently has 25% off its entire site right now.

Until June 8th, the retailer is offering huge savings (of up to £200 in some cases) on its mattresses, mattress toppers, pillows, duvets, and even beds.

You know what that means – a ton of budget-friendly ways to upgrade your sleep set-up for summer, even if you’re not trying to buy a whole new mattress right now.

To help you make a decision, here is the HuffPost UK-approved round-up of the best products available in Emma’s Spring Sale.

Best Emma mattresses

Best Emma mattress toppers

Best Emma beds

Best Emma pillows

Best duvets

We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI – prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

Whew – between its early heavy rain and sudden boiling heat, and with half-term now taking place, May’s been pretty hectic.

Perhaps that explains why our readers’ tastes have been, well, eclectic recently. You’ve been eyeing up everything from sex toys to summery clothes to solar panels in the past couple of weeks.

Here are 17 finds you lot have been loving in May: 

There is a “sad irony” to Donald Trump’s current predicament with Iran, according to a former US ambassador.

Iran effectively closed the major oil shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz, earlier this year in response to the US and Israeli strikes on Tehran in February.

That blockade has caused a global economic shock as oil tankers are bottlenecked around the waterway.

The White House is subsequently under immense pressure find a solution to the war it started so business as usual can resume.

A former US vice-president JD Vance claimed overnight that Washington and Tehran are “very close” to agreeing an extension of their ceasefire, though a deal is “not there yet”.

American officials have suggested the two countries have agreed to a framework for a deal, but they are yet to get the stamp of approval from Trump and Iran’s leaders.

David Satterfield served as the US special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues under the Biden administration and as an ambassador to Turkey during Trump’s first term.

He told BBC Radio 4′s Today that the American officials believe they have made some progress towards restoring movement through the Strait back to how it was before the first strikes on Iran on February 28.

That could include a commitment from Iran that it will not build a nuclear weapon – a concern which Trump has, sometimes, cited as the reason for his offensive action in February. 

But, as Satterfield said: “This is not a new thing. The Iranian leaderships, plural, over the course of the last 20 years have made that affirmation repeatedly.

“The critical issue here is the Strait. The question could be raised why, if the administration is happy with all of this, hasn’t the agreement been announced as formal?”

He said there’s a chance the president is being “buffeted by those within the MAGA movement, in Congress and outside, who believe that this agreement does not materially advance any of the key goals that the president outlined when this campaign was initiated on February 28”.

“Frankly they’re not wrong,” Satterfield said. “The campaign has produced in terms of strategic gains, nothing.

“It has registered a major strategic loss, not just for the US, but for the Gulf states, for the global community, in that Iran has demonstrated that it can and will close the Strait and the Strait can’t be reopened by kinetic means.”

The former ambassador said: “Iran now has demonstrated that it can do this thing and it can’t be forced to back off it.

“The question will be if at any point Iran wishes to exert pressure on the nuclear negotiations, to the extent that those are ever going to be serious, yes, it can certainly threat to restore some form of control.”

Iran also reportedly wants $24 billion (£17.85 billion) of frozen Iranian assets released from banks around the world.

As Satterfield noted: “The irony here – it’s not humorous, it’s quite sad – is that this is the who president excoriated the previous administration, or administrations, for unfreezing funds for Iran.”

In 2016, Trump slammed Barack Obama and then secretary of state Hillary Cinton over a report that the Democrats gave $400 million to Iran, describing it as a “scandal”.

The money was reportedly part of a scuttled arms accord reached before the Iranian revolution in 1979.

But the diplomat pointed out that Trump described this as “near treasonous activity” and is now in a similar position just in a bid “to restore the conditions that existed” before the war.

“I don’t know how that can be spun as anything other than a strategic reversal for the US, its partners, the global trading community, and a strengthening of Iran,” he concluded.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

Despite what you might have read, Tina Fey has insisted that she enjoyed sitting beside Timothée Chalamet at a basketball game at Madison Square Garden last month. 

The 30 Rock actor stopped by Jason and Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast this week, where she addressed the frenzy that ensued after photos of herself and Timothée at New York Knicks game were published online in late April.

At the time, many accused Timothée, whose legs could be seen spread wide in his seat, of “manspreading” beside Tina, who appeared in a more upright position. 

“I should start by saying that Timothée Chalamet was nothing but lovely. Super friendly,” Tina said, noting that the Marty Supreme actor’s girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, was also “delightful.”

Timothée apparently spent much of the night “joking around” with the comedian Tracy Morgan, Tina explained, noting that she frequently attends Knicks games as her 30 Rock co-star’s guest. 

As for the viral pictures, Tina said she wasn’t aware of the “manspreading” discourse until the next day. Still, she emphasised that appearances can be deceiving. 

“For every amount that he’s sitting like this and manspreading, I’m doing the opposite. I’ve got a big ol’ can,” she quipped. “As Amy Poehler would say, ‘God is fair’. Timothée’s legs are in the front, my big ol’ can is taking the back.”

Tina went on to note: “We had no beef. It was all good and the Knicks won, so everybody was happy.”

After a divisive awards season, Timothéee has been keeping a somewhat low public profile ahead of his return to the big screen in the next Dune movie this December. 

Elsewhere in her New Heights chat, Tina said she was proud to be branded a Knicks superfan, despite originally hailing from Philadelphia. 

“It’s really fun. That celebrity row is bananas,” she said. “I’m, like, hugging Spike Lee before the game.”

She added: “It is electric. It’s like the whole place is trying to control the game with their energy.”

Watch Tina Fey’s New Heights appearance here. Her comments on Timothée Chalamet begin around the 38:01 mark. 

The singer-songwriter CMAT has addressed the “abuse” and body-shaming she’s been subjected to since her appearance at Radio 1’s Big Weekend event earlier this month.

Fresh from her Best Album win at the prestigious Ivor Novello awards, the Stay For Something singer performed at Radio 1’s annual festival in Sunderland on Sunday.

However, days later, the Irish star shared a candid Instagram post opening up about the “horrible treatment” she’d been receiving on social media based on her appearance in the wake of her performance.

She wrote: “I have had Insta/TikTok/Twitter deleted from my phone for some time now for the preservation of my mental health, but the discourse this week appears to be so large that it has still gotten back to me. As such, I felt compelled to wade in and speak for myself!!!”

“It is literally so boring for me, a gorgeous genius, to keep having to yap on about how horribly I am treated because of my body,” CMAT continued. “I would love to stop but I cannot because it keeps happening, at an accelerating and worsening pace as I become more famous.

“There is no relief from this – nobody can protect me or save me from this, and all that is demanded of me is more and more work as every environment I am placed in becomes more hostile.”

She then wrote: “I also want to point out, to some very well-meaning people, that I am not being defiant. I am not choosing to look like this or weigh this much as some kind of punk rock act of liberty.

“I simply have a body, one that I would, of course, like to change in order to fit in and avoid all of this abuse, but I have had extreme difficulty in doing so. I don’t get a say in whether or not I want to be brave, I simply have to sit here and take it.

“With all that being said, I am at the same time very very happy and grateful every day to have the job that I have. The feeling of seeing all your dreams come true after so many years of constant grinding towards them… chefs kiss.

“But the success is increasingly becoming tarnished by the fact that I would be allowed to enjoy it so much more if I was thin.”

In her post, CMAT also explained that she’d found it “very hard to try and describe how difficult the last few days” had been since Big Weekend, but said she’d found “an essay on Substack by a blog called Front Row Feels which really has summed up a lot of what is causing my deep sadness”, which she included in her post.

Read the full post for yourself below:

Back in 2024, after CMAT made her Big Weekend debut in Luton, she shared that the comments had been disabled on a BBC post including footage of her performance “because so many people were calling me fat”.

“I didn’t realise it was illegal to have a huge ass!” she joked at the time. “I am guilty as charged. It is time to lock me up and throw away the key.

“By the way, I am an award-winning songwriter that has released two albums which were received to ‘universal acclaim’.”

This experience was part of the inspiration for what has become CMAT’s signature song Take A Sexy Picture Of Me, which became a viral hit upon its release last year.

“Everyone is constantly being judged on whether or not they’re commercially attractive and where they fall within these really weird goal posts,” she told Radio 1 last year.

“I just was annoyed, and I wanted to write a song about being annoyed about it.”

CMAT explained: “The thing with this song was, I wanted it to sound joyous and uplifting to sing but also to be a bit of a rallying cry. If we’re dealing with a song that’s as dark as this, and as grim as this, we have to make it a bit funny.”

Watch the Take A Sexy Picture Of Me music video below:

The net migration figures released this week make for extraordinary reading. Net migration to the UK has fallen dramatically. Work visa applications have plummeted. Study visas no longer bring family members automatically.  And emigration is accelerating – not just British people leaving, but large numbers of immigrants departing too.

For years, the political right has spoken of invasion. On the evidence of this week’s data, that invasion has gone into reverse. It is beginning to look like an exodus.

There is one exception. In one category of arrival there have been no government measures, no bilateral deals, no ministerial announcements, and no number of press conferences on the docks of Dover tarmac that have made any lasting difference. Channel crossings continue. Month after month. Parliament after parliament. Home secretary after home secretary.

That’s because we are not asking the right question.

Instead of asking how we stop the boats, we need to consider the question why, when every other category of migration has fallen sharply, do the crossings persist?

This question is not comfortable for any government. That’s because the answer is disturbing. The reality of the implications of war and terror and threat are disturbing.

Nearly two thirds of people who arrived in the UK by small boat between 2018 and 2025 were subsequently granted asylum. They were not gaming the system. They were not queue jumpers. They were not an army of “fighting-aged men.” After rigorous and extensive investigation by the Home Office they were found to be legitimate refugees, refugees in the strict legal sense that this country helped define in 1951, or, in other words, legal refugees. 

These refugees cross the Channel in dinghies, not because they want to, but because they have no choice. They come in small boats because it is their last resort option. They come in small boats because we have closed almost every other route.

That is the policy failure that sits beneath all the noise. We have made it nearly impossible for someone who meets the legal definition of a refugee to reach the United Kingdom through legal means. We express outrage that they turn to criminal smugglers instead, when turning to criminal smugglers is the only option they have. The smugglers who profit from the misery and desperation of people fleeing war and terror did not create the demand. It was created by those who refuse to supply legal alternatives.

Deterrence matters. Disrupting criminal networks matters. Working with international partners on the root causes of displacement matters enormously. But deterrence without a legal alternative is not a serious asylum policy. It is theatre, and expensive theatre at that.

Instead of creating safe and legal routes, the government is paying out billions of pounds to private companies involved in the business of bordering – coastal enforcement, surveillance and interception. Despite the desperate need for investment in health care, education and housing, the spending priority seems to be to stop the small boats. But the boats keep coming.

The home secretary Shabana Mahmood has quadrupled down on restriction. The tough language has not moved opinion. The draconian measures have not moved the numbers. And the boats keep coming.

Despite anti-immigration rhetoric contributing heavily to the downfall of the Conservative Party, and despite immigration being the issue on which the public rates this Labour government worst of all, there is still the same vocabulary of deterrence, crackdowns and outrage. And the boats keep coming.

There is only one policy that works. For decades it has worked successfully in Canada. Even the US is beginning to recognise it. We have seen it work in its limited form in the UK too. It is a policy with cross-party support in principle and it is one the home secretary has publicly committed to. It is a low-cost policy, and a hidden gem set within the very harsh immigration policy. It could have served the government well to have highlighted it when they were being outflanked on the left by the Green Party in recent local elections. But instead, nobody mentioned it. There has been near radio silence.

Named community sponsorship allows local churches, charities, sports clubs, and civic groups to work with the government to sponsor named, pre-vetted refugees. Communities are not presented with a fait accompli. They choose who and how many they welcome. Sponsors arrange housing and access to services in advance. Integration begins from arrival. Language acquisition is faster. Employment rates are higher. It has such enormous benefits over small boat crossings that refugees are willing to queue and wait until someone chooses them to be offered sanctuary. Because the community has said yes, this changes everything about how the arrival is received. Because the refugee has an option, they no longer need the services of the criminal underworld.

Much of the public anxiety around immigration is not simply about numbers. It is about agency, about the feeling that decisions are made elsewhere and communities are left to simply absorb the consequences. Too often central government has filled asylum hotels or created mass sites in communities without their knowledge, understanding or consent. This has enraged local people and led, sadly, to ugly protests that disturbs the community more as well as further traumatises vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees.

Sponsorship inverts that entirely. It says to a congregation, a street, a town: here is a family, assessed and approved, who need a home. Will you help? It is a different conversation. It leads to a different outcome.

A great example of the success of community sponsorship is the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Ukrainians didn’t need to pay a smuggler and risk their lives crossing the world’s biggest shipping lane in a tiny inflatable craft. Ukrainians didn’t get into small boats because they could apply for a visa while they were in Ukraine or neighbouring safe countries like Romania and Poland. In fact, they can still do that.

Once a sponsor has been found and the visa has been issued, the refugee can get a flight to the UK and walk through border control with no fear.  Some Ukrainians have even reported the overwhelming welcome they felt when met by the kindness and compassion of the Border Force agents. Sadly, those fleeing the horrors of war in Sudan or Eritrea are not given that opportunity, even when they have a family member in the UK. Outstanding Afghan young women who have earned scholarships to some of the UK’s top universities are not given that opportunity. Because of the current visa bans, the Taliban’s prohibition on women and girls studying is effectively being enforced by the UK.

When legal, structured route exists for pre-vetted refugees to reach the UK, some of those currently boarding dinghies will take it instead. The smugglers’ business model depends on having no competition. Genuine safe and legal routes provide competition.

Our government faces a defining choice. They can choose to follow their current trajectory, adopting ever harsher language about people whom the courts subsequently recognise, in the majority of cases, as genuine refugees. That approach has failed electorally. It has failed practically. It has damaged Britain’s international reputation as a country committed to humanitarian obligations and the rule of law. And while the political debate fixates on stopping arrivals, a quieter departure is already underway: nurses, doctors, care workers, teachers, hospitality staff and delivery drivers leaving a country that has become increasingly hostile to the very people on whom large parts of everyday life and public services depend.

Or they can make a harder and more honest argument: that the way to reduce Channel crossings is not only to punish those who make them, but to build a credible legal alternative that communities own, that the public can understand, that doesn’t waste precious funds, and that upholds the 1951 Refugee Convention that we helped to write 75 years ago this week.

Dr Krish Kandiah OBE is the founder of Sanctuary Foundation and the author of ‘God Is Stranger: The Surprising Power Of Hospitality’.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

President Donald Trump has made a serious effort to use sports to his political advantage.

Just this year, he’s invited Lionel Messi and his team to the White House for a photo opportunity, attended UFC matches, began constructing a UFC arena on the South Lawn and shared plans to attend an NBA Finals game, all while his unpopular Iran war marches on.

Now, with the FIFA World Cup less than a month away, one expert has revealed to HuffPost exactly how Trump is using the same “tried and true methods” that one notorious dictator used when his country hosted an early version of the tournament.

“If you look at the way [Benito] Mussolini, for example, cozied up to the athletes at the World Cup in 1934, he just wanted to be around these kinds of macho guys,” said Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University and an expert in international sports politics.

“Well, you can see [that in] the same kind of thing that Trump does all the time.”

In his new book “Red Card,” Boykoff, a former professional soccer player who once represented the US on the under-23 men’s national team, explores how Trump has used this year’s World Cup to engage in “sportswashing.” The term refers to the 21st-century phenomenon of a person (or government) using sports to launder their (or its) image.

Boykoff argues that Trump has attempted to exploit the tournament with the help of Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, and what the author calls the FIFA “grift machine,” a federation plagued by a corruption scandal that rocked the sport in the mid-2010s. 

Months ahead of the Iran war, Trump received the FIFA Peace Prize from Infantino, who cited the commander-in-chief’s “unwavering commitment to advancing peace and unity” as the rationale behind the award.

Boykoff called the prize the most blatant example of Trump trying to sportswash via the World Cup, which will be hosted in cities across the US, Canada and Mexico.

“As ludicrous as the prize might sound to a lot of people, to him, he looks important,” Boykoff said.

Aside from Trump receiving the first-time trophy before his military action in Venezuela and Iran, Boykoff said Trump is also trying to achieve a “halo effect” from other “extraordinarily popular” events like the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and next month’s “Freedom 250” UFC fight card at the White House.

“The worse that Donald Trump’s approval ratings get,” Boykoff said, the more incentive he has to “cling to sports as a sort of political life raft.” 

With fears swirling over ICE’s presence at matches as foreign fans plan to flood US cities and stadiums next month, human rights groups have expressed grave concerns that a World Cup under Trump will serve as a “bonanza” of sportswashing, especially considering that the tournament is billed as an inclusive and welcoming place for fans of the beloved game. 

Critics say recent host countries, including Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, have used the World Cup to distract from their controversial human rights records.

But the “tenets of sportswashing” have been in place for decades, Boykoff argues.

Mussolini, for instance, used the 1934 World Cup to push fascism and introduced a prize of his own — the Coppa del Duce — for the winning Italian national team, one that was larger than the typical Jules Rimet Trophy awarded to victors at the time, Boykoff writes in his book.

Other examples include Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics and the 1978 World Cup under Argentina’s military junta.

This year’s World Cup, Boykoff noted, marks the first since FIFA required bidding countries to lay out human rights risks and how they look to address them in the lead-up to hosting matches following the federation’s corruption scandal.

“And yet we can see that there are serious concerns over human rights,” he said.  

“FIFA often says ’football unites the world,’ but Trump is obviously putting lie to that by not allowing many people from countries that have qualified into the United States to even watch matches.”

On top of fans of teams from participating nations like Haitiand Iran being barred from traveling to the US due to Trump’s travel ban, Boykoff fears the government could have “plenty of leeway to do all manner of things” as the matches carry high-level, special event assessment ratings that could be used to beef up federal law enforcement’s presence at stadiums.

Boykoff said that while he loves the sport, he’s concerned that FIFA, Infantino and Trump are stealing the people’s game “right out from under us.”

“Because I’ve seen the power of soccer, or football, in action, I’m of the belief that it can bring us together and it’s worth fighting for,” Boykoff said.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

Former first lady Jill Biden feared her husband had been drugged as she watched his disastrous presidential debate performance in June 2024, according to a report in her new memoir.

The Atlantic obtained a copy of View from the East Wing, which is set to be published next Tuesday, and the book reportedly details her alarm as President Joe Biden, then aged 81, blundered his way through the televised face-off with now-President Donald Trump.

“Is he short-circuiting?” Jill Biden is said to have thought. “Is this a stroke? I felt like we were watching an AI hologram of the man we knew, and the hologram was glitching. Has he been drugged?”

Jill Biden denies there were signs her husband’s mental health was failing ahead of the debate in Atlanta, despite questions being raised about his fitness for a second term long before that night.

“The truth was, Joe was not who he was on a day-to-day basis in that debate,” she reportedly writes.

Jill Biden made similar comments about her husband’s showing at the 90-minute debate in an interview with CBS News, which is scheduled to air Sunday.

“I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death,” she said in a preview clip released Wednesday.

Joe Biden’s shaky, mumbling and at times incoherent performance paved the way for the president to halt his reelection campaign roughly a month later, and for Democrats to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris in his place.

Despite her apparent concerns, the former first lady reportedly continued to encourage Joe Biden not to throw in the towel in the immediate aftermath of the debate, with an aide emphasizing the couple had long been in “foxholes together” and would ride out the political turbulence.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

Keir Starmer has hit back at Tony Blair’s criticism of the Labour Party and suggested “much” of his analysis was incorrect.

The former Labour prime minister penned a brutal essay this week accusing his own party of “playing with fire” by lacking a “coherent plan” for government two years after winning the 2024 general election by a landslide.

He called for a complete policy rethink and for the party to avoid drifting further left in response.

Blair also suggested removing Starmer as prime minister would not be a silver bullet to improve the UK’s fortunes.

He said the UK cannot continue simply changing leaders and should instead change its approach to governing.

In a pooled media clip, Starmer offered his first direct response to Blair’s surprise intervention.

He said: “I agree with him that we should be having a discussion about policy and ideas, and that’s what generates politics, that’s where the focus should be, so Tony is right about that.

“You won’t be surprised to know that I don’t agree with much of what Tony says about what the government is doing.

“We can all argue about individual policies, but the real question is what’s the change? What’s the difference that is happening in a country that we inherited two years ago in a very poor place?”

He touted his success with falling NHS waiting lists and immigration, along with the recent economic growth and investment in public services.

“My response to Tony is, yes, it’s right to talk about policy, it’s right to talk about ideas, that’s where the debate should be,” Starmer said.

“But actually no, I don’t agree that the policy choices of this government weren’t the right policy choices given what we inherited, a very different situation in 2024 to 1997.

“And dealing with what we had to turn around, the policy choices, we’re vindicated by them because those changes have happened.”

Asked if he would run in a contest if Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham won the Makerfield by-election and triggered a leadership race against him, Starmer said he was “not going to walk away”.

He said: “I‘ve said many times that, I was elected, we were elected, on a mandate of change in 2024. I’m not going to walk away from that because of the great change that we’ve brought about already.”

He added: “There’s a lot more to do. And as I’ve said a number of times, I’m not walking away from the responsibility that was invested in me. People invested in me the responsibility to get on and govern. And I think the vast majority of people want us politicians to get on with the job they elected us to do, which is get on, run the country and improve their lives. And that’s what I’ll do.”

His response comes after Burnham and his potential leadership rival, ex-health secretary Wes Streeting, already hit back at Blair, accusing him of ignoring the inequality in the UK right now.

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

I really do mean to finish the books I take on holiday. But if I ever get accused of “performative” non-reading, I won’t have a good defence: I usually read half a page, get annoyed by the sun’s glare, and put it back down. 

And that’s when I can be bothered to bring my reading material with me to begin with. Bigger, bulkier books won’t realistically take priority in that jam-packed beach bag, and it’s not like my sun-addled brain is really craving massive tomes. 

In fact, I think knowing I probably won’t see the end of the story before I’m back in the airport puts me off a bit. So, we thought we’d round up eight short, small books under 250 pages you might actually finish on holiday (with two bonuses):

1) The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett 

Described as an “audacious lèse majesté” by The Guardian, this one-sitting book imagines a Queen who reads voraciously, asks her subjects “what are you reading?” instead of “how did you get here?” (a move hilariously accused of being “elitist”), and has plenty of thoughts on Proust. It’s zippy and deeply funny.

Length*: 120 pages 

Read: Anywhere. It’s so addictive, you could stay hooked on a plane

*All page lengths are taken from GoodReads. Your copy may differ

2) Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield 

When Miri’s wife, Leah, returns from a deep-sea mission, the pair hopes everything’s back to normal. But there’s been a “resurfacing glitch”, which this horror-realist, Polari-Prize-winning book explores in ways my colleague called “amazing/heartbreaking”. It’s also been described by the LA Review of Books as an “elliptical, leaky manual on how to live in the half-known life”. 

Length: 240 pages

Read: Wherever you can cry in peace, and maybe not right after dinner

3) Before The Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

In a Tokyo café, a special offer is on the menu: you can order time travel alongside your latte. This book tracks four people who want to take advantage of the deal for various reasons, but find it comes with consequential caveats. 

Length: 213 pages 

Read: In a scenic café, if you want to be on the nose about it

4) My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Sibling rivalry, men, and murder feature heavily in this darkly hilarious novel. Ayoola’s sister, Korede, puts a gory twist on the term “cleaning up someone else’s mess”, but even her patience is tried when her sibling aims a little too close to home. 

Length: 226 pages

Read: When your sibling holiday no longer feels like a charming bonding exercise

5) The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

Yes, that is the same story that was adapted into an Olivia Colman-fronted Netflix hit. Middle-aged divorcee Leda is alone on holiday, not having to take care of anyone for the first time in years. But when obsession over another, younger couple and a lost doll come into play, what should have been a period of self-rediscovery becomes what the New Yorker called a “brutally frank novel of maternal ambivalence”. 

Length: 144 pages

Read: On a solo holiday, or when you’ve been fantasising about one

6) The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell 

I’ve written before about why Austen and Brontë fans should give this Victorian author a read, but this short novel proves she’s a great pick for George Eliot fans too. A 1991 paper pointed out that Gaskell’s “little-known” book has been suggested as the “genesis” for the Middlemarch authors’ The Mill On The Floss since 1877. Certainly, the stunning descriptions of rural life, the headstrong female protagonist, and the tension between her ambition and the constraints of Victorian England would make any Eliot fan (including this one) very happy. 

Length: 143 pages

Read: On a staycation somewhere in the countryside, and/or, with due respect, when you want the feel of Eliot without a PhD-level reference list

7) I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel 

The Guardian said many women might think they recognise the toxic, abusive man the main character deals with in this story, but added that this is only true because “the power of I’m a Fan comes from describing a classic (if poisonous) archetype that can be traced back to the beginning of time”. You’ll gasp, grimace, and groan your way through this pacy debut. 

Length: 207 pages 

Read: When you’re on an “I urgently need to get back to me” holiday

8) Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa 

Protagonist Shaka Isawa was born with a muscle disorder that means she lives a rich life online, her sex life very much included. When one of her carers finds out about her steamier submissions, power and intimacy become subverted in deliciously complicated ways. 

Length: 112 pages 

Read: When you want your reading list to be the most memorable part of your holiday

Shout-outs 

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donaghue

Though it’s a little long at 304 pages, a colleague said they tore through The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donaghue on a recent holiday. It’s about friendship, romance, and an ever-changing home. 

Length: 304 pages

Read: If you want to say “I’ve read that!” when the upcoming Channel 4 series is released

Stories Of Your Life And Others by Ted Chiang 

This is technically a collection of short stories, but among them is Story Of Your Life, which the movie Arrival is based on. You might find yourself caught up in the author’s impressive other works, which often focus on faintly ridiculous and always engaging “what if...?” plots, too.

Length: 281 pages

Read: Dip in when you want the joy of reading without the commitment of a novel

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is on the cusp of “dangerous” escalation, according to the United Nations.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called for “restraint” on Thursday after civilian casualties in Ukraine had risen sharply.

He pointed out that the number of civilians killed or injured in Ukraine during the first four months of 2026 increased by 21% compared to the same period in 2025.

The UN said 815 civilians were killed and 4,174 injured between January and April this year, while a total of 682 were killed and 3,453 injured in 2025.

Putin has seized approximately a fifth of Ukraine’s sovereign land since invading more than four years ago, and continues to bomb the rest of the country.

Most of the recorded casualties have occurred in Ukraine-controlled land.

The recent uptick comes after a flurry of large-scale attacks, including on a residential building in Kyiv on May 13 and 14, which killed 24 people and injured dozens more.

Türk also pointed to the retaliatory attacks from Ukrainian armed forces after they hit an educational complex in Russia earlier this week, killing 21 people and injured 44 others, according to Russian authorities.

“International humanitarian law demands that parties to a conflict take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm – these are not simply suggestions or recommendations, but binding obligations carrying legal responsibility for those involved,” Turk said.

“And as if all these casualty figures weren’t horrifying enough on their own, following these attacks, Russian officials have publicly threatened to increase attacks across Kyiv.”

“I deplore the recent loss of civilian lives and injuries to civilians,” the UN figure said, adding: “I strongly urge restraint. Resume negotiations and end the suffering.”

US-brokered peace talks between Ukraine and Russia have largely stalled after Donald Trump’s focus moved to his own war in Iran.

But Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy tried to grab Trump’s attention again by asking the US for more ammunition to counter Russian ballistic missiles.

In a letter earlier this week addressed to Trump and the US Congress, Zelenskyy said this would be a “vital tool of protection against Russian terror”.

Putin is also said to be going “backwards on the battlefield” and struggling to keep up with his war of attrition, according the head of the UK intelligence agency GCHQ, Anna Keast-Butler.

She noted almost 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the war began, a shocking stat which backs up Putin’s reputation for “meat grinder” tactics.

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Remember when you were a teenager and everything was about lip gloss? And then suddenly, that urge dropped off a cliff.

Well, now gloss is back in full swing. Over the last couple of years, shimmer and sheen has had a major revival.

Call it the year of whimsy, or the nostalgia economy, but we’re suddenly craving packing our lips with a thick sheen of gloss whenever we leave the house.

But, as you’ll remember from the ones you got with a magazine, not all glosses are created equal.

In fact, now we’ve levelled up into a world where there are oils, glosses, tints, and so many other ways to make your lips look better than a glazed doughnut.

And one of the brands leading the way is e.l.f. In a throwback to our youths, the brand has just released new colourways to its Glow Reviver collection, and what can we say? It’s revived our love of scented, shimmery lip products.

Best e.l.f. Glow Reviver products at a glance:

• Glow Reviver Lip Oil Stick
• Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balm
• Glow Reviver Lip Oil
• Glow Reviver Lip Oil Glimmer
• Cream Glide Lip Liner

In five formulas, e.l.f. has everything you need to add a pop of summer colour to your lips – whether you prefer a traditional gloss formula, a stain, or something more sparkly. 

Even better, everything in the collection comes in at under £15, so you won’t have to break the bank to have a taste of your youth.

If you’re chasing the glossy summer makeup routine of your youth, here are our favourite picks from its Glow Reviver collection. Trust us; you won’t want to go without it this summer.

We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

If there’s one trend that’s defined the last few years, it’s the indomitable rise of matcha.

While the green drink might not be for everyone, matcha has taken over the world so much that there are shortages across the world. The horrors!

But it’s not a habit that’s good for your bank account. Every morning I walk past not one, not two, but three separate Blank Streets – and let me tell you, the temptation is real. 

Unfortunately for me, I can’t possibly afford to buy a matcha every time a craving hits me. So when the new Bird & Blend Matcha Whisk landed on my desk, I knew everything was about to change.

My review of the Bird & Blend Matcha Latte Whisk

Rating: 4.5/5

Originally launched in May 2025, Bird and Blend has just released a new colourway: soft lilac, which I much prefer to the original bamboo colour.

Pros:

• Perfect matcha in seconds,
• It’s easy to set up,
• Doesn’t take up much room on the counter.

Cons:

• You’ll need plenty of ice for an iced matcha as it comes out hot,
• Can’t wash it in the dishwasher (but it’s super easy to wash by hand).

First impressions

As my kitchen is entirely white, I love seeing the lilac pop in the corner, and every time I catch a glimpse of it, I suddenly crave a matcha.

That brings us to the whole point – this whisk makes the best matcha I’ve ever managed to make myself at home, and one of the best I’ve had from a matcha shop, too.

Working exactly like the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser, it’s an electric whisk that can make hot or cold matcha lattes.

Functionality

Like other appliances I’ve tested, my main concern about this whisk was that it would be just another thing I use once before forgetting about it, only for it to take up space on my counter. 

Dear reader, I could not have been more wrong. Not only does it take seconds to set up, but thanks to the fact it’s so easy, anyone could use it (yes, even your technologically-challenged grandparents) I’ve found myself whisking up a drink almost every day.

Depending on whether you want your matcha hot or cold, you’ll pour in 125ml or 250ml of milk (or oat mylk, if you’re anything like me) sprinkle in a half teaspoon of matcha, pop the lid on, and leave it to whir for a couple of minutes. Yep, that’s literally...it. 

Results

I’m not exaggerating when I say the result is matcha the creamiest matcha you’ll ever taste. No foam, lumps, or bubbles, and it takes mere seconds.

The most trying part of the whole process is remembering to have enough milk, ice, and matcha powder on hand. 

But to make sure you never run out of the latter, Bird & Blend is offering a Matcha Latte Lovers Subscription, which gives you 10% off the cost of the whisk and your choice of matcha for a two, four, or eight-week subscription.

My personal fave is the Blueberry & Acai Matcha, just FYI. I’m pleased to say, it’s saved me a lot of money buying matcha out multiple times a week.

Sorry, I don’t need it – I have matcha at home!

We hope you love the products we recommend! All of them were independently selected by our editors. Just so you know, HuffPost UK may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to shop from them. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication.

If you are my dentist, look away.

Let’s be honest: who likes going to the dentist? It’s expensive, it takes forever, and most of the time there’s nothing worth writing home about, leaving you £70 down and feeling like you’ve been through the wars.

While, sure, I care about my future wellbeing or whatever, if I’m being real, the main reason I go to the dentist is for aesthetic purposes. I don’t want my teeth to look bad – sue me, okay!

Luckily for me and any anti-dentist attenders out there, SmilePro has created an at-home kit to keep those pearly whites, well, white. 

Its Advanced Whitening Kit can be done at home, so you don’t even have to leave the house, plus it takes just seven days to change the shade of your teeth.

The kit comes loaded with 30 treatments worth of product, meaning it’s less than £1 with the 50% off sale that’s on right now.

Even better, you won’t have to spend hours in the dentist waiting room. It asks for just 10-30 minutes of your time for seven days – and all you have to do is apply the whitening formula to your teeth, and sit with the LED light in until the timer beeps. That’s right – no swilling, stripping, or scrubbing.

I was thrilled to realise I could use it while watching TV, reading a book, or even working from home.

Plus, it comes with an attached teeth shade guide, which makes it easy to measure your progress.

I’ve never thought of my teeth as being stained – not to brag, but I’ve even had compliments on them – but when I used the shade guide I was horrified to learn I had shade eight teeth. Pretty middle of the road on a 13-shade scale.

Of course, that only motivated me to get my shade closer to a perfect ‘one’.

But as someone with fairly sensitive teeth, I  worried using the kit would make my gums all tingly.

The review, however, assured me that SmilePro is sensitive-teeth friendly. One reviewer had experienced sensitive teeth in the past, “but I haven’t had any problems with this product,” she said.

“I even feel like my gums are healthier because they don’t bleed when I brush and cold water doesn’t bother my teeth anymore,” another buyer shared.

And... drumroll please. I can attest to it not hurting your teeth in the same way other whitening kits do.

While it’s still early days one my teeth whitening journey, I’ve noticed a difference after just a couple of uses.

Other buyers have even noticed a difference after one use. “I started with shade 9 and down to shade three for just seven days,” one buyer said. “This product really works and worth it if you want to boost your confidence real quick.”

“I noticed instant results on the first use,” another buyer claimed. “I have recommended SmilePro to all my friends and have had comments about how white my teeth look.”

Well, sorry hygienist, but it looks like you have a competitor.

I will admit it; I thought Nigella Lawson made the best crumble topping until just about last week. 

But I have been wrong before (I turned my back on Paul Hollywood’s focaccia after trying a no-knead overnight recipe, and even learned to take Gordon Ramsay’s carrot cake advice with a grain of salt); and I was wrong again. 

Following my most recent Sunday roast, I thought I’d give Mary Berry’s crumble recipe a try.

The dessert did not last 15 minutes; friend after family member scraped every last morsel from its inevitably too-small earthenware home.

How does Mary Berry make her apple crumble?

The former Great British Bake-Off judge keeps it reassuringly simple: plain flour, demerara sugar, and cubed butter make up the crumble topping, while the base contains only cooking apples, butter, and sugar. 

But the chef added a step I had never seen, or used, before ― she cools the apple base completely before adding the crumble on top.

That way, the butter in the crumble does not melt, creating that slimy gooey-ness which is fine (and even welcome) in small quantities, but which can ruin a crumble layer of the thickness I prefer. 

Previously, I used Nigella’s baking powder trick to keep my metres of crumble sog-free. 

But Mary’s suggestion worked even better; the topping retained its buttery flavour and thick, satisfying crumb without some of the fall-apart fluff a leavening agent can bring.

That’s not her only hack 

The Cordon Bleu-trained chef also adds a sprinkling of demerara sugar to the very top of the crumble. 

That cooks into a thin, slightly crisp layer, which is delicious against the shortbread-like crumble; I could not get enough of it.

The best part? Mary says the highly-rated recipe can be made up to six hours ahead (perfect for dinner parties ― just double check you still follow the “cool apple” rule). 

The only change I would make is adding a little cinnamon and ginger to the base of the crumble. Aside from tasting amazing, it makes your kitchen smell divine; in fact, the aroma might linger longer than the dessert.

I’d always believed the myth that everyone has to drink eight glasses of water a day, but following it took its toll on my bladder. 

“Water just goes straight through me,” I’d tell people (sorry if you heard that from me constantly circa 2018-2023).

I’d also constantly panic it meant I wasn’t “absorbing” the H2O I needed.

I’ve since learned, to my relief and my loved ones’, that how much we need to drink depends on the person; we also get moisture from other sources, like food. 

And as of yesterday, I’ve also learned that there’s no such thing as “water passing right through you” ― instead, a far more complex process is taking place.

How does it happen?

According to Dr. Michael, who debunks medical myths on TikTok, peeing immediately after you drink doesn’t mean you’re getting rid of the liquid before your body can take in the water it needs.

Nor does it mean, as the person he Stitched suggested, that you’re dehydrated. 

While most of us complain of a small bladder, Dr. Micheal explained that “the regulation of how much pee you produce actually comes from the brain.” 

Your kidneys are instructed on how much water to filter, and to what extent, by the pituitary gland in your brain, he says. 

That’s because that part of your mind “can detect how concentrated or how dilute your blood is.” 

If your blood is really concentrated, which is likely to happen when you don’t drink enough water, “it releases a hormone called ADH or vasopressin.” 

That tells your kidneys they need to hold on to the water in your blood and reabsorb as much as possible, “and that means that you pee less.” 

If you’ve got too much water in your blood, though, less of this hormone is released, “so you pee more.” 

That’s not the only effect

Drinking more water can actually make you feel thirstier, the doctor explained in his caption. 

“Drinking too much water can cause thirst due to the loss of sodium that follows the excess water you pee out,” he says. 

While I have you, let’s dispel another myth ― while it’s probably not a medical emergency, clear pee is very much not the ideal colour.

Cleveland Clinic spoke to urologist Dr. Petar Bajic, who said, “It’s completely normal for the colour of your urine to vary a little day by day, but it should stay within a certain range of yellow.”

If it’s completely transparent, you’re likely drinking too much water. Crystal-clear pee can also be a sign of kidney issues and diabetes, Cleveland Clinic says. 

The more you know, I guess...

I have a velcro kid. 

She constantly wants “tuddles” (cuddles); will come and find me whenever I’m on the toilet (and will stand there, not breaking eye contact, until I’ve finished); and even if I manage to sit her down in front of CBeebies for five minutes, I’ll turn around 10 seconds later and there she’ll be. 

I can’t cook dinner without having to pick her up (I have one muscly arm as a result), I’m the only one she wants when she wakes in the night, and if anyone else is enjoying my attention...? Well, that makes them enemy number one.

Her dad can’t get a look-in. Neither can her sister. She wants me – and only me – and while it’s absolutely wonderful (who doesn’t want to feel so loved and needed?), I’d be a complete liar if I didn’t admit it can be a tad exhausting. 

It seems I’m not alone with my “velcro” child – an unofficial term for the kids, especially babies, who are “clingy” to one parent (usually mum). A quick scroll on TikTok and you’ll see a whole host of videos from parents, and also parenting pros, about the phenomenon. 

But why are they like this?

For starters, let’s be clear: it’s nothing you’ve done wrong. It’s just their temperament. 

Sarah Wheatley, BACP member and perinatal psychotherapist, told HuffPost UK: “Just like adults, all babies experience sensations and feelings differently.

“Some children will be temperamentally more in need of soothing and comfort to help support them through some of the experiences of being a baby.”

Signs of a velcro kid

As babies, they might not want to be put down. Cot naps might seem like the stuff of mythical stories. Your baby will sleep on you – and you only. If you put them in their play gym, they’ll likely scream until you pick them back up again. 

A strong tell that you have a velcro baby is that any hot drink ends up not drunk and stone-cold. They won’t go to other people, and if you do need five minutes to get showered, they’ll likely scream the house down until you’re reunited. 

Francyne Zeltser, a psychologist and senior clinical director at Manhattan Psychology Group, told BabyCenter that if “you’re not able to put your baby down for at least one-third” of the day, you might have a velcro baby.

As they grow older and begin to move about, you might notice they start to strongly resemble your shadow – albeit a smaller, cuter version. They probably want to sit on you, or near you, or with a leg touching you, at every possibility (that includes when you’re on the loo).

They want constant cuddles and attention. Childcare drop-offs can become the stuff of nightmares. Solo play? What’s that?!

It’s understandable, really. If you’ve been their primary caregiver since the beginning, that’s all they’ve ever known. They’ve been dependent on you for every little thing – but as they grow older and become more independent, theoretically they should start to gradually shift away. Though it may take time. (Some parents reported having velcro kids up until the ages of three and four). 

And if you’re reading this smugly thinking “mine was never a velcro baby”, some parents do indeed find their kids became “velcro” children over time – this can be initiated by major life changes, like going to school or moving house.

When might a ‘Velcro child’ need more support to do things independently?

According to Wheatley, there isn’t going to be a “right or wrong” time on this.

“It will depend on what level of support the caregivers have. It will depend on what is coming up for the family (i.e. are they having another child?). Sometimes there is no perfect solution, but just a bit of a ‘to-and-fro’ as the caregivers and the child navigate the difficulties of becoming more independent,” she said.

“It often involves a series of nudges from the caregivers, accompanied by some internal motivation for the child.”

You could gently start spending more time away from them (build this up over time), or encouraging them to spend short bursts of time with other people.

As they enter toddlerhood, you can set them up with solo play (sensory bins, Lego Duplo, and magnetic tiles can keep young kids occupied for short periods) or encourage them to spend some time doing creative activities, like colouring or drawing – and offer praise when they do. 

According to Parents, it can also help to establish predictable routines and model calm separations by making “goodbyes” short when you do need to leave them in another person’s care.

It might also be helpful to let your child know – if they’re a bit older and can understand that – how long you plan to be away for, and when you’ll be back.

Support for parents of ‘velcro’ kids

If you do have a velcro baby, toddler or child, Wheatley stresses “try not to shame yourself”.

“There can be a strong rhetoric that parents ‘create’ clingy children,” she said. “However, this is just not the case. If you have a child who needs more emotional and physical support at this stage, then you need support too because it’s hard work!”

She noted when parents feel shame, it might make them resist asking, or paying, for help – “but it’s really necessary,” she added. 

To have a bit of respite, try to get some space to regulate yourself. “Whether that’s going to a community group where a volunteer might hold your baby so you can at least get a cup of tea, or putting your baby in nursery for a day so you can decompress, or using deep breathing/safe space exercises to help your body release the stress,” she said. 

It is hard and you are not finite, she added. “You need ways to resource yourself again.”

Reform UK’s candidate for the Makerfield by-election’s unearthed social media posts have stunned the general public over the last week.

The right-wing party announced last Tuesday that Robert Kenyon, a supposed “plucky plumber” and Wigan councillor, was going to be taking on Labour’s Andy Burnham in the race to win next month’s crunch contest.

Reform and Labour are locked in a two-horse race for the seat with Kenyon hoping to win over the support of the pro-Brexit constituency.

However, Burnham’s reputation as Greater Manchester mayor has given him an early lead according to polling – and he is hoping to oust Keir Starmer as prime minister if he wins the by-election.

With all eyes on the contest, Kenyon’s historic online presence has been dredged up – revealing some deeply problematic views.

Even so, Reform has stood by its candidate, even trying to market his outspoken comments as a positive.

Here’s what has been uncovered so far:

1. Attacks On Women

An account uncovered by The Independent and linked to Kenyon wrote women can’t “ref, drive or give directions” on an online rugby fan forum in the 2010s.

He said women presenting rugby games on TV “aren’t up to the job and only there to tick a box”, adding: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”

He also objectified European women’s bodies, saying English women “don’t care” and “just walk around with their fat bellies and odd shapes pushing a pram at 16 in their PJ’s”.

What did Reform say?

A spokesperson said: “These comments, which are little more than locker room banter, were made more than a decade ago – well before Rob was in politics.”

Reform’s spokesperson said: “We simply don’t care about establishment hit jobs. We fully back Rob and are confident he will be an excellent MP for Makerfield.”

2. Anti-Abortions Comments

The i paper unearthed 2019 comments sent on a rugby league forum which claimed women who have abortions get them for “vanity purposes” and so they can “shag anyone they want”.

Hope Not Hate campaigners also found that Kenyon also called abortion a “cowardly act of murdering a defenceless baby”in a series of now-deleted tweets from one account.

He also suggested women falsely claim to have been raped to terminate a pregnancy.

What did Reform say?

A spokesperson said: “Cllr Kenyon is perfectly entitled to his own personal opinions on abortion. In this country, this issue has always been a matter of conscience, regardless of which party a politician represents.”

3. Attacks On The LGBTQ+ Community

The Mirror reports Kenyon described gay people as “poofs” on a 2009 forum, and in 2010, described them as “mincing about” on TV.

In one post, he wrote: “You can’t call her ‘The Queen’ anymore because it offends the poofs.”

The next year, he wrote:  “People who want to make a stand for homosexuals need not combat the throwaway comments of a sportsman on twitter but need to do something about the way homosexuals are perceived in the mainstream media, for instance having Julian Clarey [sic], Graham Norton, 4 poofs and a piano and Paul O’Grady mincing about on TV does a lot more damage to the reputation of homosexuals and causes greater insult in my opinion.”

In 2020, he wrote: “If LGBT just want acceptance then stop making a big song and dance about it, attention seeking and taking over other events because that’s turning people against you”.

He also called Labour the “party for trannys”, according to the Observer.

What did Reform say?

A spokesperson said: “Many of these comments were made nearly 20 years ago – well before Rob was in politics. We simply don’t care about establishment hit jobs. We fully back Rob and are confident he will be an excellent MP for Makerfield.”

4. Anti-Covid Vaccines Comments

Kenyon cast doubt on the Covid vaccine on X while using an account which has since been deleted.

Archived webpages uncovered by the Guardian revealed Kenyon said: “It’s not making people sicker, I’ve no booster and had covid last week asymptomatic.”

When pressed on why his opinion was based on his own anecdotal experience, he said: “At the same time I had it, four other people on the course I was on caught it all the same as me, no symptoms.”

He claimed his 70-something mother-in-law with chronic ung disease also experienced it as a “cold”.

Kenyon advised someone else who was ill with Covid: “Wait longer, take vitamins, stop having boosters.”

He also replied to a Sky News post about England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty urging Brits to get booster jabs, saying Whitty can “fuck right off”.

He also claimed worries about a new variant in January 2022 were designed to “scare parents into getting their kids jabbed”. He wrote: “I smell a rat.”

What did Reform say?

“Robert had all his Covid jabs during the pandemic and his children are fully up to date on every vaccination,” a party representative said.

“These comments were made long before Rob was in politics. He isn’t a polished, professional politician and doesn’t speak like one. That’s precisely why he’ll be a straight-talking, effective voice for normal working people in Makerfield.”

5. Questions Over Brexit

The Times reported that Kenyon may not have voted for Brexit, even though that is a core policy of Reform UK.

In a social media post dating from March 28, 2019, he claimed he was not the typical right-winger.

“So anyone who thinks I love Trump, voted Brexit, read the Daily Mail, live in the 1950s, a Tory and 103 is wrong. I’m none of the above,” he said.

In another post, including a discussion called ‘Brexit Anyone?’, he wrote: “I woke up the day after Brexit shitting myself to what was voted for”, though he later said the EU’s treatment of Britain made him “glad we voted out”.

Kenyon also appeared to praise the principle of European free movement – one of Reform’s greatest qualms with the bloc – writing: ” “Free movement of people is great when they are natives of the EU countries and not people from outside Europe seeking a Greek passport that will allow them into any country in the EU.”

What did Reform say?

A representative said Kenyon “voted Leave in 2016 and is a proud Brexiteer, unlike Andy Burnham who will drag the UK back into the EU by any means possible”.

6. Carol Vorderman Remarks

Hope Not Hate also revealed that in 2021 Kenyon interacted with a social media message sent to the Countdown host, which read: “Happy birthday Carol, my God I would love to smell and lick your arsehole.”

Kenyon replied, “he’s only saying what we’re all thinking,” along with a thumbs up and a laughing emoji.

Vorderman has called Kenyon a misogynist, and told the Daily Mirror that she wanted “apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online.”

What did Reform say?

Danny Kruger defended Kenyon’s comments on Vorderman on Monday, telling BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “The great challenge for social media for private people is that they use it as if they are chatting to their friends in the pub.

“It was a clearly inappropriate thing to say. I’m not going to judge people for what was intended as private conversations. Clearly that is not the kind of comment you would want an elected politician to say.”

7. Interacting With The Far-Right

Campaign organisation Searchlight said Kenyon was friends with fascist campaigner Gary Raikes on a now deleted Facebook page.

What did Reform say?

Reform has not disputed this claim. Party leader Nigel Farage said: “When he [Kenyon] campaigned here at the general election, hundreds of people joined as friends, and one of them turned out to be unsavoury.

“I am utterly confident that in Rob, we’ve got somebody who’s done his bit for his country, done his bit for himself, does his bit for the community.”

8. Weighing In On Ukraine And Russia

Kenyon claimed Russia was “within its rights” to invade the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea back in 2014, according to The Telegraph.

In an online forum, he agreed with a post which called the annexation “democracy in action”, writing: “Russia are well within their rights to do what they have done as we did with the Falklands.”

What did Reform say?

“At no point did Rob explicitly support or endorse Russia’s actions in Crimea,” a spokesperson said. “He is fully opposed to Russia’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine. We fully back Cllr Kenyon. He is an excellent local candidate, who we are confident will be a superb MP for Makerfield.”

9. Manchester Arena Bombing

In posts from 2020 unearthed by The Times, Kenyon wrote: “Had [Hillary Clinton] stayed out of Libya, the MEN arena bombing wouldn’t have happened.”

The 2017 attack killed 22 concertgoers at an Ariana Grande concert. It was carried out by a 22-year-old Manchester-born son of Libyan immigrants, Salman Abedi, who died during the incident.

What did Reform say?

A party spokesperson said: “It is perfectly legitimate to point out that the instability in the Middle East has contributed to terrorist attacks in the West.

“The public are increasingly seeing through this hysterical media witch-hunt against a decent local working-class man. We stand firmly behind Cllr Rob Kenyon and are confident he will be an outstanding MP for Makerfield.”

Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.