We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about “Japanese walking,” “incline walking”, “6-6-6 walking”, and “retro walking”.

But if you want to strengthen your calves and shins, either for running or just for better mobility, some experts, like physical therapist Dr Jo, reccomend “heel walking”.

In the caption of a YouTube video, they shared: “Walking on heels is a great exercise for helping with lower leg injuries and muscle imbalances. It can also help with ankle pain and plantar fasciitis.”

Happily, it doesn’t involve walking in high heels.

They’re performed by lifting your toes and the balls of your feet up and walking on a flat surface on your heels. You can go forward or backwards with your feet hip-width apart, physical therapist group Therapeutic Associates Inc shared.

They should be short, small steps. “The aim is to point your toes as much as you can towards the ceiling so there is as much dorsiflexion in the ankle as possible,” said Runna.

You should keep your upper body tall with your eyes looking straight forward. Tuck your elbows in and let your arms follow your leg movements.

Keep your glutes and hips tucked in.

Theraputic Associates Inc added, “you may want to perform this exercise to fatigue as in, you can’t keep your toes up off the ground anymore and exhaust the shin muscles”.

Runna explained that, “Heel walks are a very simple but effective warm-up exercise for the muscle that runs along the front of the shin bone (tibialis anterior).”

This is responsible for keeping your feet lifted and preventing a condition called “foot drop”. Calling it an “underappreciated muscle,” Mirafit added that a strong tibialis anterior contributes to healthy movements of the lower leg which are “all essential when it comes to everyday life and specifically when walking and hiking.”

It may help to prevent shin splints, increase your balance and mobility, and reduce your risk of overuse injuries because they make you better at absorbing shocks, they continued.

Heel walks also stretch your calf muscles and strengthen the flexors in your foot, Runna said.

The old saying goes that a sequel is never as good as the original, with an endless conveyor belt of films proving this to be the case over the years.

Fortunately for the team behind the new Devil Wears Prada movie, the long-awaited follow-up to 2006′s glossy rom-com, critics seem pretty impressed with the second instalment, with many hailing it as a worthy successor to the first film (you can check out HuffPost UK’s review for yourself here).

But what about those rare sequels that somehow manage to better the movie that came before it?

Here are 11 of the most celebrated follow-ups in modern movie history…

We don’t use throw like “perfection” around lightly, but if there were ever a perfect family comedy, then Addams Family Values might well be it.

The fact it’s actually a sequel to a less-revered live-action version of the classic franchise is even more impressive.

Obviously, all of the cast members playing the creepy, kooky, mysterious, spooky and, indeed, “altogether ooky” family shine as brightly as their dark surroundings will allow (special shout-out to Anjelica Huston serving true macabre glamour as Morticia) – but Addams Family Values really belongs to new addition Joan Cusack, who stars as Uncle Fester’s demented love interest, Debbie.

Who’d have guessed that an animated buddy comedy about a toy cowboy and a plastic astronaut would have sparked one of the most lucrative film sagas of recent times?

And while Toy Story 2 – released four years after the original – kicked things up several notches, it was the third instalment in the series that people really went wild for. Toy Story 3 served up adorable new characters, scooped an impressive Best Picture nomination at the Oscars and, crucially, delivered not one but two ugly-cry moments.

Number four in the series is considered by many to be a bump in the road for the Pixar franchise, with a fifth instalment due to hit cinemas later in 2026.

The original Paddington film was well-received when it first hit cinemas in 2014 – featuring a CGI version of the classic character interacting with live-action actors – but even then, few could predict just how beloved its sequel would go on to become.

Not only was it nominated for Outstanding British Film at the Baftas, it was also one of the few movies with a perfect score on review site Rotten Tomatoes until… well… until it wasn’t.

Since then, a third movie has also proved successful at the box office, while a spin-off stage musical also cleaned up at the 2026 Olivier Awards.

Like many, we were sold on The Dark Knight from the moment we saw its infamous viral marketing campaign (back in the day when viral marketing campaigns were actually still new and exciting).

We could probably talk all day about how this film is a level up on Batman Begins, from Christopher Nolan’s direction, to the incredible costumes and special effects. But let’s be honest, this film is all about Heath Ledger, who deservedly earned a posthumous Academy Award for his unforgettable portrayal of the Joker.

Although the original Alien divided critics upon its original release in 1979, the film quickly garnered a loyal following, and by the mid-1980s, was revered among fans of sci-fi.

Putting out a sequel was therefore always going to be a bit of a risk, but fortunately 1986′s Aliens more than lived up to its predecessor. It earned Sigourney Weaver a game-changing Oscar nomination as the star of a sci-fi film. It has also been named the Best Sequel Of All Time by Empire magazine.

Listen, we get it, Fury Road was billed as a “revisiting” of the original Mad Max trilogy, rather than a straight-up sequel or a traditional reboot.

Still, the film was so well-received – check that 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes if you don’t believe us, not to mention its six Oscar wins – we felt we couldn’t leave it off this list.

Plus, who would pass up the opportunity to see Charlize Theron in all her buzzed glory again?

In the post-Disney landscape, Star Wars now has so many different instalments, and a fan community that stretches far and wide, that it would be literally impossible to decide which of the numerous sequels is the superior one.

So while we’d struggle to pinpoint which of film is the best, we’ve gone with The Empire Strikes Back for the simple reason it contains arguably the most iconic moment in Star Wars history, when Darth Vader’s true identity is revealed.

He said “I’ll be back”, and apparently he meant it, although it did take seven years.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day was hailed as even better than the original film by many critics, who were wowed by the advanced special effects (which went on to win one of the film’s four Academy Awards).

The success of Terminator 2 led to a number of additional spin-offs and sequels, although none of these have quite been able to match the original two films.

The first sequel to ever win Best Picture at the Academy Awards (the only other being Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King), Godfather II is so revered it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress due to its cultural significance, alongside the original Godfather film.

The same can not be said for the follow-up, Godfather III.

Although Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace proved popular, many 007 fans still breathed a sigh of relief when Skyfall was released, as they felt it was more in keeping with the James Bond franchise than Daniel Craig’s first two outings.

Skyfall won largely positive reviews from critics, many of whom praised the decision to give more material for Dame Judi Dench to work with, and became the highest-grossing film in the UK ever at that time. Follow-up Spectre was similarly well-received, with the Daniel’s fifth and final Bond film, No Time To Die, set to hit cinemas… soon. Let’s just say soon.

We could go on and on about how Shrek 2 managed to improve on almost everything that made the first movie such a hit, introducing even more amazing characters, giving Eddie Murphy’s Donkey even more one-liners, serving up even more amazing musical numbers and packing in even more laughs.

But come on, you just want to watch Jennifer Saunders’ Holding Out For A Hero, and we’re more than happy to oblige…

It was the film that spawned a thousand quotes and memes, and 20 years on, The Devil Wears Prada remains just as iconic as when it arrived on our screens in 2006.

Meryl Streep’s disarmingly spot-on depiction of the fearsome fashion magazine editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly simultaneously inspired and, indeed, discouraged a generation’s dream internship.

With the whole band – including Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci – getting back together for the new sequel, it only felt right to revisit how it all started and uncover a few surprising facts along the way.

Gird your loins, because here are 17 facts about The Devil Wears Prada you probably didn’t know, no matter how many times you’ve rewatched it…

The acerbic humour and distinctive characters are all wrapped up into what made The Devil Wears Prada such a hit, becoming an Oscar-nominated film rather than a standard landfill rom-com, of which there were plenty in the 2000s.

As it happens, that wasn’t always going to be the case.

It was director David Frankel who pushed for a new script to make the film less of a “mean revenge story” with one-dimensional characters, and more of a coming-of-age story with well-rounded central figures.

“What they were [originally] missing was the sharp humour,” The Devil Wears Prada author Lauren Weisberger told Entertainment Weekly in 2021. “It trended toward what you’d expect from the typical chick flick, like How to Lose A Guy In 10 Days.

“It wouldn’t have been a stretch to see it going in that direction, but [screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna] took it to a whole different level of smart, sharp, irreverent humour.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone but Anne on the receiving end of Meryl’s withering putdowns, but surprisingly, the future Oscar winner wasn’t the original choice to play Andy.

The film’s director previously revealed that The Notebook star Rachel McAdams was offered the role three times before it went to Anne, saying: “The studio was determined to have her, and she was determined not to do it.”

Rachel herself has also reflected on turning down the role, which she declined alongside other big roles during a break from acting.

“There’s certainly things like ‘I wish I’d done that’,” she told Bustle in 2023. “I step back and go, ‘That was the right person for that’.”

Kate Hudson was also left kicking herself after turning down the chance to play Andy

“That was a bad call,” she admitted to Capital in 2025. “And it was a timing thing, and I couldn’t do it. I should have made it happen and I didn’t.”

In fact, Anne herself claimed that she was “ninth” pick for the character, after bosses also approached names which reportedly included Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Kirsten Dunst, Juliette Lewis and Claire Danes.

Despite names like Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, and Catherine Zeta-Jones circling in early studio discussions, We all know that Meryl just is Miranda Priestly.

And it turns out she knew so as well, and it was as early on as reading the script, with Meryl recently disclosing that she initially turned down the role to leverage a higher pay cheque.

“I thought, it’s a great script. And they called me up and made an offer and I said, ‘No, I’m not gonna do it’,” she recalled. “I knew it was gonna be a hit, and I wanted to see if I doubled my ask, and they went right away and said, ‘Sure’.”

She added: “It took me this long to understand that I could do that.”

An extremely Miranda move if you ask us…

Big names like Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close and Catherine Zeta-Jones were all reportedly mentioned in early studio discussions.

Of course, though, the part of Miranda was ultimately always Meryl’s for the taking.

Some of the most memorable moments in The Devil Wears Prada, from the “hideous skirt convention” line to sardonic references to 2000s diet culture, come from Emily’s character.

However, she was actually asked to re-audition for the role after opting for an unfortunate outfit choice during her first try.

Emily previously described how she was originally auditioning for another movie when she was asked if she’d also like to read for “this little thing with Meryl Streep”.

After a “frantic and chaotic” audition – thanks to Emily running late for a flight – she was ultimately asked back by Frankel, with one particular request.

“He said, ‘Look, I would cast you, but the studio was wondering if you could wear something more stylish,’ “ Emily explained.

She added: “To be fair, I was wearing a hoodie and jeans when I auditioned for it.”

It’s heavily rumoured that for the novel, Weisberger drew on her own experiences working as an assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

For that reason, Frankel told Entertainment Weekly that plenty of people in the fashion world, from designers to models, were reluctant to get involved in the film because they “didn’t want to incur the wrath of Anna”.

“I had enormous trouble finding anyone in the fashion world who’d talk to me, because people were afraid of Anna and Vogue, not wanting to be blackballed,” he admitted.

While Meryl has spoken about her admiration for the Vogue editor, she maintains that Anna Wintour wasn’t the basis of her character in The Devil Wears Prada.

“Do I look like Anna Wintour? And did I act like Anna Wintour? No!” she reiterated at the premiere of the sequel in 2026.

To the surprise of her co-stars, Meryl chose to project Miranda’s dominance not through shouting her lines, but with a distinctive whisper-like delivery – which turned out to be far more effective.

The Mamma Mia! star drew inspiration from two directors she has previously worked with to come up with Miranda’s whisper, Mike Nichols and Clint Eastwood.

“If Mike Nichols and Clint Eastwood had a baby it would be Miranda Priestly,” she told Stephen Colbert.

“Mike would [command the set] sort of with a sly humour. Miranda knows what she’s saying is snide, but she knows it’s kind of funny too. People take [it] as mean, but it’s funny. I think it’s funny.”

“Clint would never raise his voice,” she elaborated. “He would direct and people had to lean forward to hear what he was saying.”

To nail the terrifying and steely Miranda, Meryl fully stepped into editor-in-chief mode – keeping her distance in between takes even when the cameras weren’t rolling to maintain the uneasy chemistry with her co-stars.

Unfortunately, it didn’t make for the most fun of experiences for her.

“It was horrible!” she said in a 2021 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I was [miserable] in my trailer. I could hear them all rocking and laughing. I was so depressed!”

She recalled: “I said, ‘Well, it’s the price you pay for being boss!’ That’s the last time I ever attempted a Method thing!”

To get into character for her role as an intern in The Devil Wears Prada, Anne worked at the luxury auction house Christie’s for a couple of weeks.

During this time, she claimed that her duties included “getting people coffee” and “doing whatever they needed around the office”.

Stanley Tucci plays Runway’s fashion director Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada, and early on, he delivers the film’s iconic “Gird your loins” line, precipitating Miranda’s arrival into the magazine office.

As it turns out, that wasn’t in the script. Stanley tried out a few other phrases – including, apparently the self-invented “Tits in!” – before landing on the final expression. Not bad, considering he only got the call to appear in the film three days before filming.

The role of Nigel was apparently a nightmare to cast, and producers couldn’t find the right actor to play him for months.

That is, until Stanley signed up to the role a mere 72 hours before shooting began.

With a slimline (in Hollywood terms) budget of $35 million, McKenna and Frankel had to axe $10 million worth of shots in order to have enough money to shoot the film’s Paris scenes.

Thankfully, Frankel saved Miranda’s classic line, after it was nearly chopped.

Meanwhile, Anne and Simon Baker were able to film for a weekend in Paris, although Meryl had to stay home and shoot her parts domestically.

Andy’s sulky, unsupportive boyfriend Nate has had a bashing over the years, with screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna even weighing in on the hate. So Nate’s detractors will be relieved that an alternative ending, that saw him and Andy reconcile, was ultimately cut.

“The movie used to end with a slightly more upbeat scene with Nate, more of a reconciliation,” Brosh McKenna explained. “They’re so young and they’re choosing spouses for their life, but we know that 25-year-olds are not in that position…”

“I had written a more conventional ending where they run through the park together or something,” she claimed.

In Meryl’s final scene of the film, Miranda tells Andy: “Everyone wants to be us”.

This was a one-word switch-up from the original script, which read: “Everyone wants to be me.”

Apparently, Meryl the line to reflect more of the entire fashion world, as opposed to one woman within it.

When fans re-discovered a deleted scene that showed Miranda saying thank you (!) to Andy after she saved her from embarrassment at a gala, many expressed their relief that it was left on the cutting room floor.

For some, the scene undercut Miranda’s entire personality, and was an unnecessary grasp at showing a vulnerability to the character that we see accomplished far more effectively elsewhere in the movie.

The Devil Wears Prada is now streaming on Channel 4 and Disney+. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is in cinemas now.

You know your body better than anyone – but what happens when no one listens? Welcome to Ms Diagnosed: a HuffPost UK series uncovering the reality of medical gaslighting. With new stats showing that 8 in 10 of women have felt unheard by medical professionals, we’re sharing the stories of seven whose lives were nearly lost to the gap between their symptoms and a system that refused to listen. As the UK introduces Jess’s Rule – a new mandate for GPs to ‘rethink’ after a third visit – we’re exploring why the medical system is still failing women and how we can start to fix it.

The GP folded her hands between her thighs, spun round in her chair and gave me a deeply patronising look.

“I think you’re a bit stressed, love,” she said.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing; I knew my symptoms were down to far more than stress.

As it turned out, I was right. I wasn’t stressed; I had a brain tumour on my pituitary gland, known as a macroprolactinoma. But despite going to my GP repeatedly with increasingly unnerving symptoms, I had been told – again and again – that I was just going through the menopause.

My symptoms started in March 2011, when I was around 34. I started getting really heavy periods that were soaking through pads, tampons and even my jeans; but then, all of a sudden, my periods completely stopped.

After around four months with no period, I went to my local GP surgery where I saw a nurse who told me to give it until six months before taking further action.

So I did; but in those next two months, my hair started falling out. Whenever I’d brush it, my hair would completely fill the hairbrush.

Then, things started getting really strange.

That summer, I went to Cardiff on the train – and for some reason, I couldn’t stop worrying about where to sit in case the train tipped over onto one side.

I was completely paranoid and panicking all the way there. I couldn’t understand how everyone else in that carriage had been able to sit down without a second thought.

It was bizarre; but I put it out of my mind and went back to the doctor’s about my missing periods.

I had a blood test to check if I’d gone through the menopause, and the results said no further action was required. I was adamant that that wasn’t the end of the story, though – periods don’t just stop for no reason – so I booked to see the GP.

“I think you’ve gone through the menopause,” she said. “Even though the blood test says you haven’t, it’s not always correct.”

So I went away; but then, I started having issues with my memory.

Once, for example, I was watching Barack Obama speaking on the news; and I could not remember his first name. I knew who he was; I just couldn’t place the name. I scrolled mentally through the alphabet; nothing. I Googled him and thought: “Oh. Barack. I’d never have come up with that.”

I went back to the GP again. That was when she told me I might be “a bit stressed”.

I had no choice but to leave again; but the memory issues continued, so I booked yet another appointment.

“You’ve been having a lot of appointments recently,” the receptionist said to me. “Are you sure they’re all necessary?”.

I started to feel like a pain. Then I thought: “No, I want to get to the bottom of this” – because by now, things were getting scary. I’d recently found a denim jacket in my wardrobe and had absolutely no idea where it had come from. My daughter told me I’d bought it when we’d gone shopping in Birmingham; but I didn’t even have any recollection of going to Birmingham.

So I went ahead and I booked my appointment. While I was driving there, I approached the roundabout; and I had absolutely no idea which way round to go.

I realised I wasn’t only a danger to myself. I was now a danger to others, too.

When I got to the GP’s office, she still seemed incredibly smug. I told her what had happened at the roundabout, and she said, “Well, this is just part of the menopause”.

“It’s not,’ I insisted. ’There is something else going on. I’m not exaggerating; this is not right. It’s not right. I want a second opinion.”

In the end, she agreed to refer me to a gynaecologist – because menopause was still suspected to be the root cause of my symptoms – and I paid to be fasttracked. By now, I was terrified.

I told the gynaecologist everything, and he asked me if I’d ever had a prolactin test.

“My memory isn’t very good – but I don’t think I’ve heard that word before,” I said, carefully.

He sent me to the blood unit that very day to get my prolactin levels checked; and then, at 8:00pm that night, he phoned me at home. “Your prolactin is very, very high; and I think that means you’ve possibly got a brain tumour,” he told me. “I’d like you to come back in for an MRI.”

I felt utterly numb – but gradually, it dawned on me that I was single and had a 14-year-old daughter. I’ve never felt so alone or scared.

The MRI confirmed the diagnosis; I had a brain tumour. The doctors suspected it was benign, but they couldn’t be sure until I had my first surgery to try and remove it.

That surgery confirmed that it was, indeed, benign; but ‘benign’ doesn’t mean ‘fine’. It means the tumour is less likely to progress around the body, but the tumour I have is still aggressive and life-limiting. My quality of life is not what I expected it to be at 49. I can’t do exercise; I can’t cook meals; I can’t drive; and I struggle to hold conversations for more than 30 minutes.

Once, I went to talk to my partner and all I could say was something about a swimming pool, which wasn’t what I meant to say at all.

I’m still so angry with that GP. If the tumour had been found sooner, it wouldn’t have grown so big – the type of tumour I have is aggressive and fast-growing. By now, it’s managed to spread itself further than my pituitary gland; including growing near an artery and my optic chiasm, which makes it much harder to remove.

I’ve had four surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy (twice, ten years apart); but the tumour keeps re-growing, albeit a little slower since the chemotherapy. But I can always tell when that’s happening.

After the first surgery, my periods did come back; but then, two years later, they stopped again. Another time, my memory became very strange again; a third time, I experienced more hair loss; and most recently, I had extreme tiredness.

I’ve been told there is one more surgery they can try; but that surgery will make me blind in my right eye.

Equally, though, I now appreciate life so much more than I ever did before. Without the tumour, I never would have started my own business; and even though I went to a very dark place last year, after the chemotherapy, I still have hope. You never know what could be around the corner.

These days, I just want to raise awareness of both my condition and the need to advocate for ourselves. While most GPs are incredible – including my current GP – we know, intrinsically, if there’s something wrong in our bodies. We need that tenacity to say, if needed, ‘I need an MRI’, or ‘I need a second opinion’.

And if, like I did, you feel like a pain – remember, it doesn’t matter. You just need to push, push and push in order to get the answers you need.

For more information and support, visit The Pituitary Foundation.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s influence in Republican primary elections is about to get stress-tested.

A series of primaries in early May across deep-red territory in Indiana, Kentucky and Louisiana all feature entrenched Republican officials fighting back against Trump-backed challengers, and early signs indicate Trump’s preferred candidates may not always have the upper hand. The results of the primaries could provide a stark indication of whether the president’s legendary sway over the Republican Party is fading as his popularity sinks.

The high-profile races include challenges to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), along with a promised revenge tour against GOP state senators in Indiana. All have committed supposed sins against Trump — Massie helped Democrats release the Epstein files, Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, the state senators dared to defy his orders to redraw their state’s congressional map — and yet all have at least a fighting chance.

None are running on explicitly anti-Trump platforms, and all are taking pains to downplay their differences with the president, who remains broadly popular with Republican voters. But their victories could give other Republicans space to at least occasionally break with the president or distance themselves as they run for reelection in November, which would mark a sharp contrast from the peak of Trump’s power.

“There are people who support Trump who will be voting for me, because, frankly, they appreciate both of our roles,” Massie told HuffPost. “They don’t want a rubber stamp, and they appreciate that I might be the only dissenting vote occasionally, because you can have a favourable view of Trump and believe that 10% of the time he may be wrong.”

One Republican strategist, requesting anonymity to speak frankly about the president, acknowledged Trump’s sway has diminished but said he was still by far the party’s most powerful figure.

“You obviously want the president’s endorsement, but at this point you might want it as much for the money that comes with it than the endorsement itself,” the strategist said, pointing to Trump’s well-funded allied super PAC, MAGA, Inc. “A big chunk of voters will still say ‘how high?’ when he says ‘jump.’ But that group’s smaller than it was before the Epstein files and Iran.”

Jesse Hunt, another Republican strategist, noted now-President Trump has far less time to dedicate to swaying voters than then-candidate Trump did in 2022 and 2024.

“Saying ‘Donald Trump supports XYZ or this or that’ in an ad is helpful, but when he’s the difference maker is when he throws his full force of his ability to drive media attention at a given subject,” Hunt said. “He’s leading the country. He has less time to do that for downballot races. That’s the reality of governing, especially when you’re not running for reelection.”

Trump’s approval rating has hit new lows in recent polling. A Pew Research Center survey released Friday showed just 34% of registered voters approved of his job performance. But losses among people who backed him in 2024 seem to be accelerating: While 95% of them approved his job performance in January 2025, that number fell to 83% a year later and to just 78% today.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A Trump ally, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly, said it was possible Trump could travel to Kentucky and Louisiana before the races there to make renewed pushes for his favorite candidates.

And Trump dove into a different race in Kentucky on Friday night, endorsing Rep. Andy Barr to replace Mitch McConnell in the Senate after arranging for another candidate in the race, businessman Nate Morris, to take an ambassadorial position.

One candidate who has benefited from a Trump-directed surge in cash is Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL and Massie’s Trump-backed challenger. Trump-allied and pro-Israel groups have poured more than $10 million into ads attacking Massie and boosting Gallrein ahead of the May 19 primaries. But limited public polling has shown Massie with a small lead in the district and a super PAC backing him has been able to respond with more than $3 million of its own advertising.

And part of Massie’s strategy is to portray himself as more of a Trump ally than as a Trump critic, even if his support for releasing the Epstein files and opposition to administration priorities often draws headlines. In one ad, Massie goes direct to camera to tick off a huge list of conservative priorities he shared with Trump.

“President Trump and I have a whole lot more to get done together,” Massie says over an image of him walking alongside an AI-generated elephant wearing a MAGA hat.

In Indiana, Trump wants revenge against eight state senators who defied his demand that they redraw the state’s congressional map to eliminate Democratic seats ahead of November’s midterm elections. Trump recruited a first-term city councilman named Blake Fiechter to go up against state Sen. Travis Holdman, the highest-ranking member of the Indiana legislature up for reelection.

After receiving Trump’s endorsement in January, Fiechter announced in February that he was ending his campaign, saying it was too hard. Then he got back in the race and joined other Trump-backed challengers in a visit to the White House and a meeting with Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), one of Trump’s more enthusiastic supporters on Capitol Hill. One Republican county chairman suggested to the Indiana Capital Chronicle that voters don’t care enough about redistricting to throw Holdman overboard.

“There are lots of issues that motivate the voters in Indiana, but I would bet my Starbucks card that he loses,” Banks told HuffPost.

With no public polling of the races, it’s difficult to know who might be winning. Banks and Gov. Mike Braun, however, have dedicated millions of dollars toward groups airing attack ads and sending mailers attacking the incumbents and supporting Trump-backed candidates.

Cassidy, one of the Republican senators who voted to convict Trump at his 2021 impeachment trial, is locked in a three-way Republican primary against Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and former Rep. John Fleming (R-La.). Letlow has Trump’s endorsement, but in polling, it’s Fleming, who also served in multiple roles during the first Trump administration, who has the lead.

“People know that I worked in the Trump administration for four years. They know my voting record in the House of Representatives for eight years,” Fleming told HuffPost, noting he was a co-founder of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus.

“They see me far more in alignment with President Trump, that I’m much more the prototypical MAGA candidate,” Fleming said. “The comments I get over and over again is, ‘We love Trump, and we 100% support his agenda, but in this case, he endorsed the wrong candidate.’”

Cassidy has run ads highlighting his relationship with Trump, even though Trump has endorsed one of his opponents. But Cassidy’s most recent ad, released last week, doesn’t mention the president, instead bashing former President Joe Biden and saying Cassidy saved Louisiana jobs.

In a brief interview in a Senate hallway, Cassidy told HuffPost he didn’t think the president’s endorsement would determine the outcome of the race.

“I think I’m going to win,” he said. “I deliver for Louisiana. I worked really hard for my state. People want to have someone who’s delivered for their state.”

An Emerson College Polling/KLFY News 10 survey released this week showed Cassidy in third place with 21% support among Louisiana Republican primary voters, compared to 27% for Letlow and 28% for Fleming. A Quantus Insights poll in February showed Fleming with 34%, Letlow with 25% and Cassidy at 20%.

Fleming said Cassidy’s impeachment vote was a “betrayal,” and he said Letlow has had problems with questionable stock trades while in office, as well as with her past support for diversity, equity and inclusion when she served as an administrator at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

“When I was there, DEI was presented to us as a tool that would help students actually achieve the American dream … I quickly witnessed it was hijacked by the radical left, turned into indoctrination of our students, even Marxism,” Letlow told a Louisiana TV station in an interview posted this week.

Fleming said his campaign’s polling shows Louisiana Republicans still support the president and that his own success, even without Trump’s endorsement, doesn’t mean the president’s star is fading.

“This in no way reflects upon the president,” he 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.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, especially when it comes to gardening.

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how everything from old washing-up bowls to disused pans and even melon rinds can keep your garden biodiverse, well-watered, and lower on slugs.

It turns out the humble toilet roll tube has its place in your backyard, too.

Here are four of its uses:

“Toilet rolls make great eco-friendly plant pots,” gardening pro Simon Akeroyd shared on his Instagram. They’re great for seedling starter pots: just cut them in half across the middle.

Then, take one half of the tube and pinch its sides so it turns into a cuboid (basically, “square it off”).

Once that’s done, cut slits about one to two centimetres into each of the four new creases from one end of your tube half.

Fold these flaps together, ensuring they slightly overlap, then tuck your last flap into the others. Repeat with as many tube halves as you need.

When stood up in a tray, they should act as perfect little seedling pots that you can fill with soil and seeds. But beware, Akeroyd explained: “Make sure you plant them so none of the cardboard is above ground.

“Otherwise, the top of the cardboard acts like a moisture wick, sucking out all the moisture, resulting in dead, dried-out plants.”

The BBC said that all you need to make a cheap, easy bird feeder is suet or peanut butter, an empty loo roll tube, and about 30cm of string, alongside scissors, a plate, and some birdseed.

Pour some birdseed on your plate, “slather” the outside of the cardboard tube with suet or peanut butter, and then roll it in the seeds (a bit like the world’s most unappetising truffle).

Once the tube is well-coated, thread the string through the tube and hang it in your garden.

A caveat, though: the RSPB has discouraged feeding birds peanuts or seeds from 1 May to 31 October, as that can lead to too many birds gathering in one place, potentially spreading diseases like trichomonosis.

“It’s okay to keep offering small amounts of mealworms, fat balls, or suet year-round,” they added, but it’s best to keep this particular project on hold until winter.

Speaking to Martha Stewart’s site, Audrey King, garden centre specialist at Kent Greenhouse & Gardens, said that worms love “nibbling” on the cardboard.

The Royal Horticultural Society agreed that a “limited” amount of cardboard, newspaper, and shredded office paper makes a great meal for the creatures, who help to aerate soil.

Cut them into thin rings or small pieces and add them to the top 10cm of your soil before watering, King added.

Both she and the RHS said this only applies to plain cardboard. “No plastic coatings, dyes, or glossy finishes,” King said. “Just the simple brown kind. The environment will thank you.”

King also shared she likes to use old cardboard toilet paper tubes as “plant collars” to deter pests.

She cuts them along their lengths and then places them, standing up, over the stem of a young or delicate plant. King pushes the soil to keep them upright.

“I like to think of it as a little cardboard moat that keeps the bad guys out until your plant is strong enough to stand up for itself,” she said, though of course this only works for pests that eat the stem of your plants.

US President Donald Trump on Friday told Congress the Iran war has ended.

In letters to top Republicans in the House and Senate, Trump said a weekslong ceasefire remains in place and that there’s been no more fighting.

“There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026. The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated,” Trump said in letters to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

At the same time, Trump said the US military “continues to update its force posture” in the region in response to Iranian threats. He told reporters on Friday the US Navy is maintaining a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

The letter is less about the war actually changing than the Trump administration trying to comply with the War Powers Resolution, a 1973 law that requires hostilities to cease within 60 days if Congress hasn’t authorised the use of force. Several Republicans in the House and Senate have warned about the 60-day deadline while voting against Democrats’ repeated attempts to end the war. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Thursday became the second Senate Republican to vote for an antiwar resolution as the deadline approached.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday called the letter “bullshit” in a post on social media.

“This is an illegal war and every day Republicans remain complicit and allow it to continue is another day lives are endangered, chaos erupts, and prices increase, all while Americans foot the bill,” Schumer said.

Trump’s main audience is likely Republicans. It’s unclear how his claim that the war has ended will go over if the US maintains a naval blockade. The president said earlier Friday that the blockade is still on.

“We’re on our way to another victory, a big victory, and I don’t think that it’s constitutional what they’re asking for,” Trump said, referring to lawmakers’ demands Trump consult Congress on the war.

“These are not patriotic people that are asking, you know, when they say— even the losers, even the ones that say all the wrong things, admit that it’s been amazing what we’ve done,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “The strait is totally shut down. It’s flawless. It’s totally 100% shut down now.”

Under international law, a naval blockade is an act of war.

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Donald Trump made a compelling case on Friday as to why people running for president or vice president should be required to take a cognitive exam similar to the ones he’s previously taken and claimed to have passed with flying colors.

In the process, he also proved, once again, that irony is dead.

The president was speaking to seniors living in The Villages, a prominent Florida retirement community, when he explained the pressing need to have the mental acuity of the nation’s future chief executives examined in detail.

And his reason seemed destined to set him up for brutal internet mockery.

“I mean, you get a guy who gets in there, he’s got a good line of crap. He gets in, and all of a sudden, you’re stuck with a man who’s a moron,” Trump said. “This is not good.”

Earlier in his speech, Trump went into great detail about his own cognitive testing, which was meant to find signs of cognitive dysfunction and possible dementia, and suggested that not everyone would be able to handle it as well as he did.

“I took three of them, aced all of them, by the way,” he said of the tests before bragging that he was “the only president to take a cognitive test,” something he claimed former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden could never pass.

“You know, the first question is very easy. It’s a lion, a giraffe, a bear and a shark. They say, ‘Which one is the bear?’” he explained before adding that the last 10 questions on the 30-question test were challenging.

“A lot of you wouldn’t have been able to answer those 10 questions,” he told his audience.

Many people on social media felt compelled to go into full snark mode over the president’s “moron” comment.

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Some of the most prolific A-listers in the world will soon be getting ready to walk the red carpet at this year’s Met Ball.

Originally conceived as a fundraising gala, aiming to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York’s Costume Institute, most of us now associate the Met Gala with its red carpet, where guests like Rihanna, Zendaya, Kim Kardashian and Madonna can all be seen serving up some jaw-dropping fashion moments.

But it’s not just the red carpet fashion that gets us talking at the Met Gala every year.

Across the decades, the event has generated countless headlines thanks to bust-ups, A-list incidents and attention-grabbing stunts.

To get us in the mood for this year’s event on Monday evening, here are 31 of those moments that have gone on to define the Met Ball…

Lady Gaga certainly knew how to make an entrance with four different outfit changes at the “camp”-themed event in 2019

And, for that matter, so did Billy Porter

That was the same year when Zendaya’s outfit had a clever reveal of its own thanks to her “fairy godbrother”, stylist Law Roach

After channelling Karl Lagerfeld’s feline pal Choupette in 2023, Doja Cat really stayed in character

Kim Kardashian sparked weeks’ of discourse when she attended the Met Gala in 2022 sporting an iconic dress once worn by Marilyn Monroe…

We kind of still struggle to compute that Elon Musk and Grimes were ever even a thing – but the fact they hard launched their relationship at the Met Ball is something we don’t think we’ll ever wrap our head around

If you thought the “naked dress” trend was a Kim K or Rihanna invention, you need to think waaaaaay further back – to Cher in 1974, to be exact

After making her mark with her signature style of colourfully-dyed hair, oversized hoodies and punk-y jewellery, Billie Eilish showed off a very different side to herself when she co-hosted the event in 2021

When it comes to star guests, they probably don’t come much bigger than Princess Diana, who attended the Met Ball in 1996, a year before her untimely death

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised eyebrows (and, apparently, faced an investigation) for this ensemble in 2023

Sarah Paulson clocking Madonna on the red carpet was an extremely relatable moment

Sadly, not every A-list feud gets resolved under the watchful eye of Anna Wintour, as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj proved when they briefly tried to clear the air at the 2018 event

Demi Lovato made it clear they’d never return to the Met Ball after one unnamed ‘complete bitch’ apparently made the singer so uncomfortable that they almost broke their sobriety (Demi headed straight to an AA meeting after the event, apparently still wearing their Met Gala diamonds)

Meanwhile, Lena Dunham also faced a huge backlash online when she claimed NFL player Odell Beckham Jr had essentially ignored her at the event (where they had been seated on the same table) as he didn’t ‘want to fuck’ her. She later apologised for ‘projecting [her] insecurities’ and making ‘totally narcissistic assumptions about what he was thinking’.

A host of celebs from Courtney Love and Dakota Johnson to Marc Jacobs and Rami Malek all faced controversy in 2017 when they were seen sparking up cigarettes in the toilets of the Met Gala

And no Met Ball retrospective could possibly be complete without Rihanna, undoubtedly the event’s queen, whether she’s playing with androgyny…

Speaking of Rihanna… who could forget when she threw some shade in the direction of her fellow guests after they failed to live up to the Comme Des Garçons theme in 2017?

It starts before the baby is even born: Where will you give birth? Who will be in attendance? Bottle or breast? Co-sleeper or crib? The choices you have to make accumulate, forming a huge, intimidating snowball that threatens to flatten you. The potential consequences of each decision weigh heavily, as they are no longer simply about your own preferences, but your child’s future.

The average person makes more than 35,000 decisions each day, Dr. Lisa MacLean, chief wellness officer at Henry Ford Health in Michigan, told HuffPost. “And each decision — no matter how small — requires time and energy,” she said.

If you find yourself so overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices you have to make on a given day that you feel unable to make even one more decision, you may be experiencing what is known as “decision fatigue” ― though it can be tricky to separate this phenomenon from the general stress of parenting.

Here is what you need to know about decision fatigue, and some tips on how to minimise its impact in your life.

Studies have shown that people’s capacity to make thoughtful decisions diminishes as the day wears on. A 2011 study involving an Israeli parole board found that board members were more likely to grant parole requests in the morning, and after breaks for food. The theory is that people’s minds expend energy, like a muscle, when they make decisions, and that after a lot of decisions, an exhausted mind works less effectively. In the case of the parole board members, when they were hungry or tired, they seemed to skew toward the “safe,” or default choice of keeping the prisoners incarcerated.

“Decision fatigue occurs when decision making becomes increasingly difficult,” MacLean said. “Essentially you make so many decisions that you become drained.”

The result can be an inability to decide — decision or choice “paralysis.” People may defer to a default option, like the members of the Israeli parole board, or they may start to make choices impulsively. Others might procrastinate or attempt to avoid making a decision at all, MacLean said.

If you’re stymied by deciding what to make for dinner, it’s possible that decision fatigue is to blame.

“Just think about the number of decisions a parent makes in the morning alone before their children [go to] school. They then work all day — both within and often outside the home and then pivot back to trying to effectively parent after a full day’s work,” MacLean said, noting that this stress may be multiplied for single parents.

“You might notice that your own tank is on E before your kids even get home from school,” she continued.

But the stress you’re experiencing may not simply be a product of the quantity of decisions you’re making.

“While I believe that the mind can fatigue, I don’t think this is always due to the specific number of choices made or the specific time of day,” Eva M. Krockow, professor of psychology at the University of Leicester, told HuffPost.

Other factors, she explained, can also make decision-making difficult. “When it comes to parenting, there are lots of different sources of information out there, including information on internet forums and social media. Some of this information is conflicting. It’s a hugely complex cognitive task to make sense of all this information and reach decisions around parenting styles, school choices or even food choices.”

Given these challenges, it’s not surprising for “parents to feel overwhelmed and paralysed,” Krockow continued.

In other words, if you’re struggling with a choice, it may be that the number of decisions you’ve already made that day is to blame — but it might also just be a tricky decision. No amount of minimising choices throughout the day will help you decide what to do about child care when all of the options are too expensive, for example.

You can’t always make the work of parenting any easier, but you can sometimes give your brain a break by limiting the number of choices you have to make each day, or trying to schedule them strategically.

Krockow and MacLean made the following suggestions:

1. Set up routines. “Creating routines will allow you to move throughout your day without having to think about a decision,” MacLean said. You might wake up at the same time every day, eat the same breakfast every day, exercise and go to bed at the same time every day, for example.
2. Make big decisions in the morning, or at the time that’s best for you. Since the research shows that our decision-making capacity diminishes as the day goes on, it makes sense for most of us to hold off on big decisions until the morning. But some people might find that they are too tired in the morning, and another time of day is best for them. “It’s important to understand personal decision tendencies and realise when one’s own willpower is at its lowest – this is likely to be different for different people,” Krockow said.
3. Use a decision-making strategy. “One common heuristic would be to rely on ‘social feedback’ or reputation,” Krockow explained. If choosing a school, for example, you’d rely on the word of trusted parents instead of reports and rankings online. You can simplify your process “by focusing on a number of key criteria rather than trying to weigh up lots of different advantages and disadvantages,” she said.
4. Limit the number of choices. This is a great strategy for helping kids make decisions — and managing their behaviour. If you’re serving breakfast, instead of saying, “What do you want to eat?” you might say, “Would you like cereal or a bagel?” Instead of asking what they want to do (knowing it probably involves an iPad) you could say, “Would you like to play a game or colour now?” You can use this strategy to make your own life simpler, too. MacLean recalled that her son liked to eat salami and cheese, so that’s what she gave him for his lunch. “He ate salami and cheese every day of high school! It made it easier for me and cut down on the number of decisions I had to make.”
5. Plan in advance. This can look like a grocery list or a weekly meal plan, and can also involve your kids. They can lay out their school clothes, set the table for breakfast or pack up their lunches the night before, for example.
6. Delegate when possible. In MacLean’s family, her husband and children are in charge of making dinner one night per week. “Thursday is my day off from making dinner. They can make anything and I don’t complain. We eat pizza a lot on Thursdays, but it is so freeing to think to myself, ‘It’s Thursday, I don’t have to decide what to make for dinner.’”
7. Don’t neglect your own self-care. If you’re feeling worn out, decision-making will feel harder. “Get enough sleep, avoid skipping meals, get sunshine, move your body, use social media in a thoughtful but limited way,” MacLean advised.
8. Go easy on yourself. Remember that parenting is hard, and not everything can be made easier with a hack. “One of the best things we can do is give ourselves — and others — the benefit of the doubt,” MacLean said. “We’re doing the best we can, and we can’t ask for much more. Take a deep breath when you need it. Recognize you don’t have all the answers.”

The original version of this story was published on HuffPost at an earlier date.