With warmer weather on the horizon, a lot of us are turning our minds to sunnier destinations – and what better way to beat the end of year blues than booking a group holiday for 2025?

However, while group trips are a great way to explore a new destination and make lifelong memories, issues can arise thanks to the many different personalities and preferences at play.

And, of course, there is the issue of getting the holiday booked in the first place – we all know the struggle of trying to get a trip arranged.

To help make group travel a more enjoyable experience, HuffPost UK asked travel experts at Club Med to share some common mistakes that people make on these types of trips – and how to actually get the holiday out of the group chat and into our calendars.

Locking in a date early is crucial to ensure that everyone can attend, it also often means you get better deals and more choice of availability. Coordinating schedules with the group and agreeing on a time that works for all, sooner rather than later, helps avoid date clashes and last-minute dropouts.

This is truly the one conversation you need to have before hitting the ‘book’ button. While money can be a tricky subject in group trips, it’s essential to agree on a budget upfront.

Making sure everyone is comfortable with the costs will help to avoid awkward situations later and setting a clear budget ensures the trip is affordable for everyone involved.

According to Nicolas Bresch, Managing Director at Club Med UK, Ireland and Nordics, all-inclusive holiday packages could be the answer to your budgeting woes: “All-inclusive packages are a great option for group holidays because they simplify planning and help avoid unexpected costs, which helps to avoid any awkward conversations about money, such as how to split the bill. With everything from meals to activities included, you can focus on enjoying the trip rather than managing the logistics.”

Instead of endless back-and-forth discussions, present 3-5 destination options that fit both the group’s preferences and budget. Voting on the final choice allows the group will help to stay focused and keep the momentum going for booking your holiday.

Not everyone will agree on every detail, so flexibility is key. Being open to compromises on activities or even the destination ensures that the trip works for the whole group, minimising potential conflicts.

Flights and group accommodations can sell out quickly, especially during peak travel seasons like summer. Some providers can package up flights, making the process easier and potentially cheaper. Once the dates and destination are locked in, booking as soon as possible will help to avoid disappointment or inflated prices.

Keeping everyone organised is essential. Setting up a shared calendar with all key dates, flight details, and planned activities means everyone stays on the same page and no one misses important deadlines or events.

Turns out my spice drawer is brimming with surprising facts. For instance, mass-produced paprika is often (though not exclusively) made from bell peppers.

Meanwhile, delicious allspice, which I’d always assumed was a mixture of star anise, nutmeg, and cloves, is actually made from one species of berry. Even chilli powder is rarely made from 100% dried and ground chilli peppers.

But I never expected a similar mystery to unfold for my beloved garlic, which I figured was all more or less the same.

Not so, experts say. Apparently, purple and white garlic have completely different flavours – yep, that slight lilac blush at the base of your bulb still counts.

According to Tasting Table, purple garlic is a “hardneck” species of the aromatic.

Its colour, which only affects the papery layer affecting its cloves, comes about thanks to a natural antioxidant called anthocyanin.

This is triggered when growing hardneck garlic varieties experience cold weather.

White garlic, meanwhile, is a “softneck” variety.

“Hardneck” species have a woody stem growing through the centre of the bulb, Allrecipes explains.

The cloves of “hardneck” garlic, like purple garlic, all tend to be the same size because they all grew around the same centre. These larger cloves tend to be “juicier.”

“Softneck” varieties, like white garlic, have softer stems that do not go all the way through the bulb.

That means the cloves all have different sizes as the smaller ones huddle inside the larger outer groups.

“Hardneck” or, in this case, purple garlic usually has a milder, sweeter flavour.

To be honest, Tasting Table admits, most of the time they’re interchangeable.

But if you’re roasting garlic, whether on its own or with meat like chicken, sweeter purple varieties might be best.

It is also favoured for Mediterranean cuisine and goes brilliantly in infused butters and oils; its less pungent nature makes purple garlic better-suited to being eaten raw, too.

Robert Jenrick had a very tense reunion with one of his onetime Conservative colleagues on live TV on Friday as they argued over his painful defection to Reform.

Jenrick, who is now Reform’s Treasury spokesperson, was celebrating his party’s success on the BBC after it won more than 400 seats in the local elections in England.

But he was sat next to Victoria Atkins, the Conservatives’ shadow environment secretary – and she quickly got personal.

“Robert and I haven’t actually spoken to each other since I supported his leadership [bid to take over the Tories],” the MP for Louth and Horncastle said.

“So I’m surprised he’s so quick to can all of the work he did in the government when he was immigration minister, but also the work that we were trying to do since the general election in order to rebuild.”

She pointed out that Jenrick was also “part of the team that made those mistakes” when the Conservatives were in government.

He hit back that the public’s “trust is completely and utterly gone” for the Tories.

“People do not want a return of the Conservative party. It is a dead party,” the MP for Newark claimed, pointing to their decline in local authorities across England.

Atkins hit back: “Rob has not spoken to me since he left the Conservative Party in the way that he did. And I considered us to be very good friends.

“It’s been a great personal loss to me, as well as a professional one. The reason I raise this is because Rob is the economic spokesperson for Reform.

“And I think how one conducts themselves is important. I think that this is a message that will continue until the general election. If people are asking voters for trust, then it has to be genuine.”

Jenrick was sacked as shadow justice secretary by Kemi Badenoch after she got wind of his plan to defect to Reform back in January.

Asked for his response to Atkins’ comment about trust, he just said: “I don’t personalise things!”

The BBC’s Nicholas Watts pointed out that Atkins had campaigned for Jenrick’s by-election bid in 2014, and for his leadership bid in 2024.

He then sat in the shadow cabinet for months under Badenoch – while plotting to join their main right-wing rivals.

Atkins also suggested that Jenrick’s criticisms of the last Conservative government do not land because he had a prominent role as immigration minister – at a time when migration numbers were going up.

“You were a cabinet minister who signed of the immigration policies of Boris Johnson,” Atkins said.

Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper, who was also sat on the panel, then chimed in.

She said: “I feel like I’m sitting in on a marriage counselling session of the right-wing of British politics, it’s very peculiar to watch and listen to, quite frankly.”

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.

As the debate around phone etiquette at gigs rages on, Billie Eilish has admitted she thinks people need to relax on the subject.

During a new interview with NME, the chart-topping US star was asked what she made of scenes in her new concert depicting a sea of mobile phones in the crowd.

“I just think that’s what it’s like,” the Bad Guy singer responded, when “asked if her fans get a bad rap” over their penchant for recording so much on their phones at her gigs.

She continued: “My generation, and the generations below, we love to film stuff. All I do is film and take pictures of stuff – all of the time.

“When I was young and would go to concerts or festivals, I would film every single minute of it – and then I would watch every single video that I took over and over until I even had the audio of the crowd memorised. I think that’s not to be pooh-poohed.”

Billie added: “An important part of the culture is that we are all on our goddamn phones! It keeps us connected. It does!”

Not all of Billie’s music industry peers agree with her on this matter, though.

Last year, Sabrina Carpenter admitted that she’d “never had a better experience at a concert” than a Silk Sonic gig she’d attended, where guests had to lock away their phones.

Conceding that it may “piss off” her fans, Sabrina said she’d “absolutely” consider implementing a similar policy at her own shows.

“I’ve grown up in the age of people having iPhones at shows. It unfortunately feels super normal to me,” she told Rolling Stone, but agreed with Billie that she “can’t blame people for wanting to have memories”.

On Madonna’s 2019 theatre tour, guests were required to conceal their phones in locked pouches that could only be opened if they left the arena.

“If you cannot experience Madame X theatre without the use of a recording device – then this show is not for you,” she claimed at the time (though it’s perhaps worth noting that the Like A Prayer has repeatedly been called out for her own phone use in the past, including once during a screening of 12 Years A Slave and another instance while watching Hamilton on Broadway).

Jack White, Bob Dylan and Alicia Keys are among the other artists who have introduced rules about phone use at their shows in recent history.

Donald Trump’s administration has issued a forceful response to Mark Hamill, after the Star Wars actor posted an AI-generated image depicting the US leader lying in a grave.

On Wednesday, Hamill – who has been a vocal critic of Trump throughout hos political career – took to the social media site BlueSky, where he posted a picture showing the president lying in a grave, in front of a tombstone suggesting tat he died in 2024.

“If only,” Mark captioned his post, before proclaiming that Trump “should live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted and humiliated for his countless crimes”.

He added: “Long enough to realise he’ll be disgraced in the history books, forevermore.”

Since BlueSky is a relatively liberal platform compared with X, the vast majority of respondents had no problem with Hamill’s post.

However, the White House’s Rapid Response account on X, however, had a much angrier reaction, branding the actor “one sick individual” and a “radical left lunatic”.

Hamill later deleted his post and created another, which he called an “accurate edit for clarity”, that didn’t directly respond to the White House criticism.

In it, he said, Trump “should live long enough to… be held accountable for his… crimes”, and added: “Actually, I was wishing him the opposite of dead, but [I] apologise if you found the image inappropriate.”

Although wishing death on anyone, or cheering their demise, is generally considered tasteless and inappropriate, it should be noted that this is something Trump has also done repeatedly.

In March, Trump’s response to the death of former FBI director and special prosecutor Robert Mueller was: “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”

Two years earlier, he posted a video on social media showing an image of a hog-tied President Joe Biden printed on the tailgate of a passing truck.

And just last month, he threatened the entire nation of Iran with genocide, saying that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again”.

Congratulations to the iconic broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, who recently reached the impressive milestone. He is now officially 100 years old.

The national treasure recently said he’s been “overwhelmed” by the love that’s been showered on him on his birthday. The BBC has thrown something of an Attenborough bonanza on its channels during his birthday week, too.

In 2024, the proportion of 90+-year-olds who’d made it to 100 rose from 2% in 2004 to 2.7%.

Which begs the question: is there something longevity legends like the Blue Planet star know, are, or do that makes hitting a century more likely?

Here’s what science says about those who reach the rare status of centenarian:

A 2025 paper that looked at 270,000 Swedish people born from 1920-1922 for up to 30 years, starting age 70, found that those who lived to 100 tended to have a positive worldview.

Study author Karin Modig said, “maintaining a positive outlook on life – feeling a sense of purpose – does seem to be a common pattern”.

A separate paper found that those who have a positive view of ageing may be less likely to experience age-related decline. And the Japanese approach, “ikigai”, or having a passion you actively participate in in older age, could lead to healthier ageing.

That same Swedish study found that 100-year-olds tended to get diseases later and have fewer of them.

Modig shared, “The results suggest that centenarians have preserved homeostasis and resistance to disease despite ageing and physiological stresses – something that may be due to a favourable combination of genes, lifestyle and environment.”

She added that “Having a healthy cardiovascular system” helps, too. Thankfully, heart health researchers say it’s never too late to improve this through quality sleep, physical activity, not smoking, and a good diet.

OK, I admit this isn’t a lifestyle habit, but then, research shows not everything is within our control. One 2017 paper found that having a parent who lived to 95 increased their children’s likelihood of facing common health complications in older age, like high blood pressure, stroke, and heart attack.

Still, researchers think only 25% of your longevity is down to genes.

A Chinese study found that, among older populations, 100-year-old adults who were the likeliest to sleep 7.5 hours (inlcuding naps) a day.

And the very elderly were 70% more likely to report great-quality sleep than their 65-79-year-old counterparts.

A 2023 article in the journal Nutrients “found strong evidence for an additional role of both diet and lifestyle changes as agents for longer life and reaching centenarian status”.

And a spearate paper, also published in 2023, said that UK life expectancy could increase by as much as 10 years by shifting to healthier diets, including eating more “whole grains, nuts and fruits and less sugar-sweetened beverages and processed meat”.

Netflix has gone and done the seemingly impossible, and adapted Remarkably Bright Creatures for the screen.

Shelby Van Pelt’s novel became a bestseller upon its release in 2022, telling the story of a lonely widow who befriends an octopus in the aquarium where she works.

As the story unfolds, she and the octopus, named Marcellus, team up to solve the mystery of her son’s murder, with certain passages even told from the marine creature’s perspective.

Because of its unique premise, bringing the story to life in film was always going to be a difficult task, but on Friday morning, Netflix unveiled its new movie version of the hit book, starring two-time Oscar winner Sally Field alongside Lewis Pullman and the voice of Alfred Molina as Marcellus.

The question is… how did they do?

Well, overall, critical reception has been pretty mixed, but one thing reviews can agree on is a stellar performance from Sally Field, as well as the fact that anyone looking for some cosy comfort viewing is onto a winner with this one.

Here’s a selection of what has been said about Remarkably Bright Creatures in the lead-up to its release…

“[Sally Field’s role] requires some heavy emotional bridges to cross as well as a light touch and maternal instinct to make this pairing with Pullman, as well as the vocal performance of Molina, work as well as it does […] Netflix has a warm and rather wonderfully old-fashioned movie winner with this one. There won’t be a dry eye in the house.”

“Respectable and heartfelt, [Remarkably Bright Creatures is] a very straightforward page to screen interpretation that gets the job done and the tears flowing thanks to strong performances by Sally Field and Lewis Pullman.”

“As a film about animals, Remarkably Bright Creatures is human-centric treacle. But as a film about people, its gentle sense of humour and depth of feeling are enough to sweep you away on a wave of emotion […] It’s as cozy as an old woolen blanket, as sweet as a mug of hot chocolate and, ultimately, as moving as the sight of a sky turning purple over an endless horizon.”

“I’m not sure how much of the film would really work without [Sally Field] anchoring it – she adds volume to what’s otherwise a pretty low-level hum – but with Field smoothly moving between comedy and drama in a film that can’t always move quite so gracefully, it all just about stays afloat […] If Newman doesn’t quite get the tears she’s clearly craving, she manages to leave us charmed enough for it not to matter all that much. Remarkable might be a stretch, but decent will do.”

“Heavy on benevolent feeling and shy of outright human conflict, the film floats and sprawls and spirals like the creature to which it’s glowingly in thrall, but a bit of spine wouldn’t go amiss.”

“As a film, this tearjerking story about giant sea creatures, broken people, and huge secrets works well enough. Much like Van Pelt’s novel, it’s a cosy little drama with twists and turns that feel both inevitable and delightful. It’s all bolstered by Field and Pullman’s performances, which crackle with chemistry and good choices.”

“Too heartwarming to dismiss […] Remarkably Bright Creatures doesn’t need to be remarkable to be worthwhile. It just needs to be comforting, and if Netflix wants to keep owning the Mother’s Day weekend with films like this, then I welcome that effort.”

“[This] touching drama is like a warm hug […] Remarkably Bright Creatures is an excellent film for anyone looking for something heartwarming and cosy to watch. The cast elevates an already strong script, and the premise of a sentient octopus narrating the events of the film gives it a sweetly peculiar way to differentiate itself from the myriad of similar movies.”

“Remarkably Bright Creatures is a heartfelt character piece, featuring a cast that elevates the material and keeps the book’s potentially maudlin tentacles in check.”

“Mostly, Tova and Cameron use Marcellus as the non-consenting recipient of all their trauma-dumping. In fact, the poor creature is happily disappeared from the narrative for a good chunk of the film’s runtime, and no one really seems to miss him.”

Remarkably Bright Creatures is streaming now on Netflix.