Soap fans can look forward to seeing another familiar face in the ballroom when Strictly Come Dancing returns to our screens later this year.

On Thursday morning, the BBC announced that actor Lawrence Robb was the 12th star who’s signed up for Strictly this year.

Lawrence is best known for his performance as Mackenzie “Mack” Boyd, one of the newer additions to Emmerdale’s iconic Dingle family, in the long-running ITV soap.

“I don’t know who’s more excited about this, me or my mother,” he joked when the news was confirmed, before admitting: “I can’t quite believe that I am going to be getting my dancing shoes on this September on one of my favourite shows of all time!”

He enthused: “It’s a dream come true, and I can’t wait to bring my all to ballroom. Wish me luck, and any advice is very welcome – trust me I’ll need it!”

Outside of the Dales, Lawrence is known for his work in the dark comedy I Hate Suzie, and the West End shows Legally Blonde and Mojo.

He joins a line-up that already includes EastEnders alum Lacey Turner and Jaime Winstone, alongside a host of stars from the world of music, sport, TV and beyond.

The additional three stars on the line-up will be announced in due course, ahead of Strictly’s launch show in September, which will mark Emma Willis, Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe’s debut as hosts.

Check out our round-up of all the stars on the Strictly Come Dancing 2026 line-up here.

Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha is claiming that she is taking legal action against her employers at ITV.

In recent history, Nadia had been at the centre of speculation about her status as a member of Loose Women’s on-air team, with reports in the tabloid press having previously suggested she had been temporarily “dropped” due to her vocal support of Palestine on social media.

Earlier this week, the former Celebrity Big Brother housemate vowed to share her side of the story as to why she hadn’t been on Loose Women for a period of time, having last appeared on the topical panel show back in April 2026.

“I will be telling the whole story. It’s pretty unbelievable,” she teased, ahead of a more candid post on Thursday morning.

Nadia began by telling her followers: “My legal team at ELSC have today written to ITV alleging that I have been treated unlawfully due to my protected beliefs. Now, before I say anything else, I want to say how sad I am that it’s got to this, believe me. I have appealed to ITV’s hearts and minds, but to no avail.”

She continued: “After I began speaking publicly in support of Palestine in December 2023, I became the target of an escalating campaign of smears, complaints, hostile media coverage and targeted calls to have me removed from Loose Women. Since then, ITV have taken me on and off Loose Women a number of times.

“I’ve mostly been told that the reason for this was – and I quote – ‘it’s all just a bit noisy out there for us’.”

Nadia then reminded her followers: “In July 2026, after I’d been taken off air again, and Mark [Adderley, her husband] was running as a Green [party] councillor, a number of newspapers made false allegations about us, accusing us of supporting terrorism and being anti-semitic. Disgusting.

“So far, two of the papers have had to issue apologies and pay damages, and other cases are still pending. Now, around the same time, an open letter from a group of prominent pro-Israel media figures apparently sent a 20-page document to ITV urging them not to reinstate me. No one has yet paid me the courtesy of allowing me to see the letter or answer the accusations.

“ITV have continued to take me on and off Loose Women, forever changing the goalposts, whilst also saying that they couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t take me off again as it would depend on what was said – even though I am hired for being an opinionated woman on a discussion show and I’d never brought up or spoken about Palestine directly on the show.”

“This is the tip of the iceberg of what’s been happening,” she alleged, before pointing out that “this is Instagram, and I only have three minutes”, and saying that in addition to her “taking legal action against ITV”, she also wanted her supporters to sign a petition in solidarity with her.

She added: “Two years ago, a petition to get me removed from Loose Women was set up, but now I want to show there are many more people with us than against us.

“I want to make it clear, it’s not just me that’s been targeted like this for my beliefs. There are the teachers, doctors, nurses, charity and supermarket workers and students who’ve also spoken according to their conscience, and have suffered a similar fate as me. Well, enough is enough.

“We need to send a clear message to ITV, and other groups and corporations, that we won’t be scared into silence. No one should be bullied out of their job for following their conscience and speaking out against brutal oppression.”

HuffPost UK has contacted ITV for comment.

Nadia made her Loose Women debut in 1999, parting ways with the show in 2002. She then returned to the panel in 2013, and has remained part of the line-up until recent history, which has seen her becoming featured more sparingly.

Last month, she and her husband Mark Adderly received apologies from the Daily Mail and Metro news outlets after reports in which the pair were “wrongfully accused” of “celebrating” the terrorist acts of Hamas, which they said was both “unforgiveable” and had put their family “in danger”.

In their correction notes, both outlets acknowledged that Mark had not shown “support for terrorism or hatred of Jews”.

“The article also said that Mr Adderley and his wife, Ms Sawalha, run a Youtube channel, and that Ms Sawalha fully supported her husband, which may have suggested that she endorsed the statements and videos wrongly said to have been shared by him,” they said. “These allegations were false and we apologise to Mr Adderley and Ms Sawalha for the error and distress caused.”

It’s funny, isn’t it – every generation’s “good old days”, and the advent of what they say was the “greatest music ever”, usually happens to coincide with their childhood and early adulthood.

Oddly enough, the time they feel the world started going to ruin also follows a typical timeline (roughly when they started paying taxes and being forced to choose what to eat for dinner every evening).

But that doesn’t mean that the past really was much better, and it’s not necessarily just nostalgia.

At least, that’s according to a phenomenon known as “rosy retrospection”.

If nostalgia means looking sentimentally and wistfully at the past, “rosy retrospection” is “a bias where individuals judge the past as being disproportionally superior to the present,” a 2022 paper reads.

And that distinction is important, the authors wrote.

Though nostalgia was once thought of as a psychological disorder, we now think it may benefit our mental health and can even contribute to healthy ageing.

It might also help us to gauge how well we, and society, are progressing and offer comfort when we need it.

But researchers say rosy retrospection is linked to “denial, discounting, and indifference towards any shortcomings, impediments, or difficulties of associated past events,” and seeing the present world as worse.

It’s “unique” in that it pretty much always biases the person with it against the life they live now.

That can mean that you don’t appreciate positive changes, while nostalgia can make you grateful for something – like not having to lug a 760g mobile phone with you if you wanted to chat on-the-go.

Experts think this could be because our minds tend to focus on emotionally intense experiences, whether positive or negative.

And for many people, those are tightly packed into their early adulthood – as the authors said, “this period in life becomes for many an emotional bookmark within the mind against which most experiences are mentally compared and contrasted”.

That cognitive bias might make us “critical” or “impatient” of the way the world is now.

The authors of the 2022 paper suggest that it’s important to be aware of the biases inherent in rosy retrospection and, where possible, to build new moments to look back on later.

Reform UK and the Green Party have fallen to their lowest favourability ratings to date, according to a new poll.

The findings suggests the shine is wearing off the two anti-establishment parties while Labour’s Andy Burnham enjoys his honeymoon period as the new prime minister.

After asking the general public if they have a favourable or unfavourable view of each political party, YouGov put the net rating for Nigel Farage’s Reform on -38 overall, down four points from the end of June.

That decline comes amid a flurry of scrutiny over Farage’s finances, particularly a £5 million donation from a crypto-billionaire which he failed to declare to parliament.

The Reform leader ended up triggering a “people versus establishment” by-election in his own seat of Clacton last month.

A parliament probe into the undeclared gift has been paused while Farage is out of the Commons, though he is widely expected to win his seat back.

YouGov also found 65% of Brits now have an unfavourable opinion of Reform – the highest level recorded by their tracker to date.

Meanwhile, YouGov also found Zack Polanski’s Green Party has fallen in favourability by seven points in the last six weeks, down to -23.

That’s a sharp decline compared to last August, when the left-wing party enjoyed a net positive rating of +5.

But, the Greens are still the second more favourable mainstream party in Westminster behind the Lib Dems.

Polanski faced backlash after he reshared a photo on Instagram of a t-shirt with the words, “we’re only making plans for Nigel”, and a guillotine.

While he removed the post, the Green leader refused to apologise.

YouGov also noted that the Conservatives were second-last in the overall ratings, sitting on -33 behind Reform.

Labour has overtaken the Tories in recent weeks as they now sit at -25 having gained voters’ favour with an extra 10 points.

The Liberal Democrats were the most popular group on -13, up one point from the end of June.

Listen 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.

We still don’t know exactly what causes types of dementia like Alzheimer’s disease. But some evidence suggests that modifiable risk factors can increase our odds pretty considerably.

The Lancet’s Commission on dementia, for instance, found that up to 45% of a person’s risk could be determined by lifestyle factors.

And a new paper published in Neurology Open Access has linked avoiding three habits in middle age to up to 13 years more dementia-free life.

“Our findings argue that people need to actively avert these factors in midlife as a strategy for preserving brain health for more than a decade,” said Dr Josef Coresh, the study’s senior investigator and founding director of the Optimal Aging Institute.

This research looked at 12,409 adults who were part of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study, which began in 1986.

Participants’ average age was 56 at the start of the study, and none of them had dementia.

They were all tested for three factors:

1. high blood pressure,
2. smoking, and
3. diabetes.

Then, the scientists followed participants for 26 years to find out who got dementia and who didn’t.

By the end of the study, 3,008 people had gone on to develop dementia, and 5,238 people had died without developing the condition.

People with none of the three risk factors researchers looked for at the start of the study enjoyed 13 more dementia-free years compared to those who had them, the study found.

That meant those with no risk factors lived 30 years without dementia after the study’s start, compared to 17 years for those with them.

Untreated high blood pressure has been linked to an increased risk of dementia multiple times in the past, though we know that people who take appropriate medication for the condition actually seem to have a lower risk of dementia than those who don’t.

Demographics seemed to affect this result, however. Women with all three risk factors tended to go 18.1 years after the start point without dementia, whereas for men with all three risk factors, that shrank to 16.6 years.

And Black participants with high blood pressure and diabetes who also smoked typically had 16 dementia-free years from the start point, whereas their white counterparts with the same risk factors went almost 20 years without developing the condition.

Dr Coresh said: “These results suggest that vascular risk reduction may benefit all groups, but that certain populations, such as Black adults, may especially benefit from targeted prevention efforts.

“Hopefully, these results will encourage people to stop smoking and watch their vascular health closely from age 48 on.”

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how our walking speed aged 45 might be linked to our dementia risk – slower strollers may be more likely to experience faster brain ageing.

In general, changes in walking pace and gait may be considered a potential early sign of cognitive decline.

Now, a paper published in Neurology, comparing “super” vs “non-super” movers in their 80s, found that faster walkers might be as much as 50% less likely to develop cognitive decline than those who moved at a slower pace.

This study looked at almost 4,000 participants without dementia, all over the age of 80.

The individuals took a timed walking test, and the speediest 9% were deemed “super movers”. Despite a baseline age of roughly 84, they walked as quickly as most people do in their 50s.

After an average follow-up period of 4.4 years, “super movers” saw less memory loss, better cognition scores, and a lower likelihood of developing dementia.

Speaking to Medpage Today, study author Dr Joe Verghese said: “Super movers appear to represent an exceptional ageing phenotype, with a lower burden of disease, healthier lifestyles, and potentially younger biological age.”

Our biological age has to do with the “wear and tear happening inside the body at a cellular and molecular level,” and is different to the years we’ve been alive (chronological age).

Dr Verghese added that a “combination of favourable biology, preserved brain health, and lifelong healthy behaviours may help them maintain both mobility and cognition into late life”.

Some experts think that how long we can stand on one leg might be another sign of our dementia risk, partly because it combines our mental and physical abilities.

Speaking to MedPage, Dr Verghese said a similar process might be at play with walking.

“Walking reflects the integrated function of multiple systems, including the brain, cardiovascular system, muscles, and sensory pathways,” he said.

Screen legend Molly Ringwald is opening about one of her least favourite filming experiences.

Molly shot to fame in the 80s thanks to roles in the John Hughes classics The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and Pretty In Pink, and continues to act on both the big and small screen.

Earlier this week, the Golden Globe nominee was a guest on the talk show Watch What Happens Live, where host Andy Cohen asked her to rank 10 of her past projects, choosing the teen drama series The Secret Life Of The American Teenager as her “worst” pick.

“That was it. The worst,” she recalled. “It was a hard [shoot]. I mean… OK, I love the cast. I love Shailene [Woodley, who played Molly’s on-screen daughter].

“[But] there was one person that was really difficult. And I’m not gonna say who that one person is. [But] they brought it down…”

The Secret Life Of The American Teenager ran for five seasons between 2008 and 2013, starring future Bafta and Emmy nominee Shailene Woodley as Amy, a teenage girl who discovers that she is pregnant.

Molly starred as Amy’s mum, Anne, while the cast also included the likes of Mark Derwin, Greg Finley and Steve Schirripa.

In recent years, Molly has been seen in action in the Ryan Murphy projects Monster and Feud, and made a guest appearance in The Bear back in 2022.

She’ll next be seen in action in the new rom-com One Night Only, featuring Callum Turner and Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro as two strangers who meet by chance on what happens to be the one night a year single people are allowed to have sex.

One Night Only – which arrives in cinemas worldwide on Friday – also features appearances from stars including Julia Fox, Este Haim, Pete Davidson, Ziwe and Maya Hawke.

The fourth stand-alone Spider-Man movie sees Tom Holland return as Peter Parker alongside Zendaya’s MJ and Jacob Batalon’s Ned Leeds.

Picking up after the emotional events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter is left working alone after everyone he loves forgets his identity.

The 38th MCU film is full of Easter eggs and celebrity cameos, including one you might not have noticed at the time.

In the film, Naomi Watts voices E.V., Peter Parker’s J.A.R.V.I.S.-like AI helper. You can hear the Oscar nominee’s voice throughout the film, via Peter’s Spider-Man suit and computer, offering advice and data.

But this isn’t Tom and Naomi’s first time appearing in a project together.

Naomi previously played Tom’s mum in his live-action debut, the 2012 drama The Impossible.

Inspired by the real Indian Ocean disaster of 2004, Tom played the 12-year-old son of Naomi and Ewan McGregor.

Naomi earned an Oscar nomination for playing Dr. Maria Bennett, who joins her family on holiday in Thailand when a deadly tsunami causes area-wide devastation.

Following the new Spider-Man film’s release, Naomi posted some behind-the-scenes photos from her time on the movie alongside the message: “From playing your mom to playing your AI (100 percent human made).”

The two time Oscar-nominee then congratulated Tom, the film’s director Destin Daniel Cretton, and “the whole Spider-Man: Brand New Day team on the historic opening weekend”.

“Immensely proud to even just a tiny part of this incredible film!” the King Kong actor enthused.

Brand New Day also reunites Naomi and the director Destin Daniel Cretton, with whom she previously worked together on 2017’s The Glass Castle.

Naomi played the matriarch in the biographical drama, which also starred Sadie Sink, who makes her MCU debut in Brand New Day.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently out in cinemas.