Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are reportedly moving back to the United Kingdom later this month, according to The Telegraph and The Sun.

The couple and their children will move to a private, non-royal residence outside of London after living in the US since 2020. Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, are set to attend a British school beginning in September.

Their move to the US came amid feuds with members of the royal family and the British press. Harry and Meghan are not set to resume any royal duties.

The planned move comes after the Duke and Duchess took a trip to the UK last month, marking the first time Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet had seen their grandfather King Charles III since 2022.

Charles, however, did not learn of the move until Sunday, according to the British outlets.

Harry has repeatedly said Buckingham Palace prevented the safe return of him and his family because it refused to provide security. It’s unclear what security arrangements the family will have now that they are moving back.

A UK Home Office spokesperson told NBC News, “It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”

Harry, Meghan and their children have been living in Montecito, California. They also have property in Portugal.

Harry and his brother, Prince William, remain estranged. William was apparently “blindsided” about the move, according to Cosmopolitan.

HuffPost reached out to the UK Home Office, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, and Harry and Meghan’s organisation for additional comment.

President Donald Trump’s lengthy social media rant threatening an “ECONOMIC D-DAY” over Iran on Wednesday was ripped apart by critics who seemed to see right through his rhetoric.

Mere hours after bragging that the situation was “so good” with Iran, Trump promised the country would experience “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.” He also noted that any country that “allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”

“You know who you are,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.”

Critics were quick to point out that the countries aiding Iran during the conflict were the same ones Trump often praises, including Russia. This would make it improbable that Trump would follow through with his ultimatum, thus continuing his pattern of walking back economic and military threats against Iran.

According to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Iran has been under international economic sanctions for decades, and there were few measures the US could take outside of sanctioning or cutting off relations with Tehran’s largest trading partners.

“Iran’s largest trading partner is China; its second largest trading partner, I believe, is Russia. It also trades with North Korea, a little bit with India. These are not countries that the Trump administration has that much influence over,” Zakaria said on Wednesday’s edition of “Anderson Cooper 360°.”

Zakaria added that it was a dubious proposition for the US to cut off trade with China over the issue of Iran.

“We’ve already seen how that would work ’cause the Chinese would cut off their exports of rare earth, and all kinds of crucial things that the United States depends on. So it seems unlikely that you’re actually gonna get at the core problem,” Zakaria said.

Read more reactions to Trump’s post here:

Andy Burnham has announced a crackdown on the criminal gangs profiting from illegal waste.

The prime minister intends to empower more police officers to seize cash, cars and houses from criminals profiting from the illegal waste sites.

Fines will be extended from their current maximum of £300 up to £5,000 and those responsible could face tougher sanctions like prosecution and imprisonment.

AI-powered drones will also be used to detect illegal activity as it happens.

Burnham wants to use the National Crime Agency and more Environment Agency officers to seek out those who dump illegally as part of his plan to fix long-ignored problems across the country.

Regional mayors will focus on their own areas with a fresh partnership between national and regional agencies which enables enhances intelligence and capability sharing.

West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester will be first to start region-led approaches to waste crime.

The prime minister has also planned to fund the clean-up of three more of the UK’s most serious illegal waste sites in West Yorkshire, Surrey and Kent.

The government says these sites hold an estimated 22,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste and harms an estimated 2,900 people.

“These toxic dumps have blighted communities for too long,” the prime minister said. “I said we would clean them up – and that’s exactly what we’re announcing today.

“The days of making easy money out of waste are over. We’re giving authorities the powers to hunt down the people responsible. We will seize their assets and shut their operations down.

“These mountains of rubbish have been a clear sign to communities that politics hasn’t been working for them or their area. This government is going to tackle the issues that have been ignored by Westminster for too long and bring back hope.”

Environment secretary Angela Eagle said: “Communities have been subjected to horrendous conditions and denied the pride they deserve in the places they call home. This ends now.

“We are cleaning up sites, but we are also stopping the cycle, driving faster prevention and disruption, better intelligence, and stronger coordination across the system.”

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.

Sandra Bullock is reflecting on the loss of her partner of eight years, Bryan Randall.

The Oscar winner and photographer began dating in 2015, and were together until he died in 2023, three years after privately being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease.

During an appearance on an upcoming episode of the podcast SmartLess, Sandra spoke about how her partner asked her “not to share” his diagnosis publicly.

“I wasn’t allowed to speak about it,” she recalled. “That was the request and I tried – I honoured it.”

Sandra said that she understands why Bryan “asked me not” to disclose his condition publicly, but admitted that it “isolated me in the process” to carry such a “huge weight” without being able to talk to anyone outside of her family about it.

The Miss Congeniality star claimed that she “started grieving Bryan four years before he passed”, pointing out that he was “ill for half of our relationship”.

“My person left a lot earlier than the body left,” she recalled. “I don’t think I ever dealt with that until after he passed, because you’re just on this treadmill, you know?”

She also shared how caring for her parents in the past meant that illness “doesn’t scare me”, but claimed the difficult thing was her own children, as well as Bryan’s, living through the experience with them.

“I can see and be around just about anything,” she continued. “But I had two young kids that were navigating it, especially a little girl who saw [Bryan] as a father figure.”

“When the physical illness was then coupled with the mental health aspect of things – and it’s something that people don’t talk about – it was a trifecta that was pretty dark,” she then added.

After Bryan died, his family put out a joint statement which read: “Bryan chose early to keep his journey with ALS private and those of us who cared for him did our best to honor his request.

“We are immensely grateful to the tireless doctors who navigated the landscape of this illness with us and to the astounding nurses who became our roommates, often sacrificing their own families to be with ours.”

Back in 2021, while Bryan was privately struggling with his illness, Sandra called him the “love of my life”.

“I am someone who went through the divorce process,” she said on Red Table Talk, while discussing the fact that she and Bryan were not married. “[And then] I found the love of my life.

“We share two beautiful children, three children, he’s got his older daughter. It’s the best thing ever. I don’t want to say do it how I do it, but I don’t need a paper to be a devoted partner and a devoted mother.”

Sandra Bullock’s full interview with SmartLess will be released on 24 August.

Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Sue Gray has called the environment within No.10 “unbearable” in a new interview.

Gray, once the most powerful adviser within Downing Street, has spoken out with searing honesty about what has often been described as a “boys’ club” culture at the heart of the last government.

The former Starmer aide told the Political Currency podcast: “I was thrust into the limelight in a way I had never experienced.

“It was definitely unbearable, particularly for me, and it was just affecting me and my life.”

Gray, a Labour peer, was one of the first high-profile figures to leave Starmer’s side back in 2024 following a series of leaks about her salary exceeding his own and her supposedly turbulent relationship with colleagues.

A former civil servant, she was already well-known to the public for leading the partygate enquiry into Boris Johnson’s government before she was given a top job by Starmer.

She quit in October 2024, less than three months after Labour’s landslide election victory, claiming speculation around her had become a “distraction” for government.

Gray was replaced as chief of staff by Morgan McSweeney, often described as her arch-rival in No.10. He had to resign later over his role in helping appoint Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US.

Asked about speculation she tried to get McSweeney moved further away from the PM, Gray said: “I had always taken a view as a civil servant and actually as a special adviser that you should be able to speak freely in rooms … I couldn’t recall those sort of discussions being briefed out, and yet here I found myself.

“Stories about supposedly trying to move Morgan McSweeney to the back of the building. Actually, that was a genuine … ‘I can’t believe so many of you are going to sit in this small room. Let’s find a better room for you.’ It just got to the point where you know everything you say, you feel somebody is recording it.”

Asked if Starmer understood her fears about the briefings against her, she said: “I talked to him but I was disappointed. And I really believe that advisors should not be the story.”

She added that “none of that briefing came from me”.

When asked about what she thought had gone wrong with the last prime minister, Gray said: “I think government and opposition are very different, and I’m not sure I would say they shouldn’t have survived, but I do think that we needed bigger people, people with bigger experience to be heads of, whether it was comms or policy or strategy. Government is very, very different.”

Starmer has not given an interview since leaving office last month, but he said last year that he was “wrong” to give Gray the role.

He said: “Not everyone thought it was a good idea when I appointed her … It was my call, my judgement, my decision, and I got that wrong. Sue wasn’t the right person for this job.”

There has been speculation that Gray might be brought back into Burnham’s administration as an advisor.

However, she told the podcast she was enjoying life outside of government, though Gray added that she was “still taking part in many aspects of public life”.

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.

Ricky Gervais has dismissed some of the scathing criticism he has come under since the release of his new show Alley Cats.

While the Office creator has long been a divisive figure in the comedy world, his animated Netflix series about a group of cynical feline friends living on the streets of London has received some of the worst reviews of his career.

In the weeks since, Ricky has made it clear that he stands by the project, and in an X post, laughed off a piece in The Spectator about Alley Cats, which pondered: “What has happened to Ricky Gervais?”

On Wednesday, he shared a graphic titled “25 years of Ricky Gervais being finished… critical headlines predicting his decline” which listed various publications’ harsher reviews of his work dating all the way back to 2001, alongside a laughing emoji.

He then shared a follow-up post insisting that “word of mouth” has “really started to kick in” when it comes to Alley Cats.

“[That’s] still the best marketing there is,” he claimed. “Give it a watch if you haven’t already and see what all the fuss is about. Oh, and post a photo of your cat watching too. I like that.”

Despite the scathing reviews, when Alley Cats premiered on Netflix at the beginning of this month, it slowly ascended the platform’s chart of most-watched series, before reaching the number one spot.

At the time of writing, it has fallen out of the top 10, which currently includes the new season of Love Is Blind UK, the Harlan Coben mystery I Will Find You, and documentaries about football icon Jose Mourinho, cult leader Charles Manson and the murder of four students at an Idaho university in 2022.

Ricky has a long-standing relationship with Netflix, with whom he’s previously collaborated on the award-winning series After Life and a number of stand-up specials.

For a long time, there’s been a misconception that BDSM (bondage, dominance, sadism, submission, and masochism) is some kind of niche sexual fantasy.

Well, folks, I’m here to tell you that that is well and truly wrong. In fact, research shows that almost half (46%) of people have ever tried it, while an additional 22% have experienced fantasies about it.

If you so happen to fall into that category, you’ve come to the right place.

While BDSM has been increasingly romanticised in media over the last decade or so (think: Pillion, Fifty Shades of Grey, I could go on…) there is no handbook for how to get into it.

But some of the acts within BDSM come with risks, so to help you embark on your journey, we’ve consulted the experts for some beginner-friendly guidance.

We’ve also rounded up the best BDSM sex toys to get started with, from handcuffs to beginner BDSM sets.

As with anything sexual, it all starts with talking to your partner about your desires. “Talk about what you’ve fantasised about, what you’re not willing to explore and what you want to try together,” advised Tim Lagman, resident expert at sex toy store, pjur.

These conversations should also include ‘housekeeping rules’ like boundaries, hard limits, words that are triggering, and what you want to gain from the experience, according to Courtney Boyer, pjur’s resident clinical sex educator.

“These kinds of conversations beforehand often create more intimacy than the activity itself because it builds trust and emotional safety,” she explained.

Communication is particularly important because two thirds of women have had non-consensual experiences with BDSM acts, so you’ll want to make sure all parties are equally game for what you’re about to try out.

If you’re not sure what kind of fantasies you’re into, but want to try something new, you might want to explore BDSM communities such as FetLife to see what people are talking about, or watch ethical porn to get some ideas.

“You don’t have to earn a place in the kink community by trying the most extreme thing you can imagine,” Boyer explained.

“Ask yourself what genuinely sparks your curiosity rather than what you think you’re supposed to enjoy. Following your own desire, instead of someone else’s expectations, makes the experience far more enjoyable.”

If you’re completely new to BDSM, you might want to start by exploring one aspect at a time. This isn’t a race – so there’s no pressure to jump into anything straight away.

“Trying impact play, bondage, sensory deprivation, dirty talk, and power exchange all in one evening can quickly become overwhelming,” Boyer noted.

“Pick one new experience, keep it simple, and give yourselves permission to learn together.”

Low-intensity play is a great place to start, suggested Lagman. This could include removing one of your senses, such as your vision, with an eye mask, and experimenting with new sensations.

“Feathers, silky fabric, or even an ice cube can change how someone experiences touch,” Lagman said.

“Removing one sense can heighten another, making a familiar experience feel brand new. Starting slow also allows you to discover what excites you before investing in more expensive toys.

“If you’re using toys as part of the experience, pjur Toy Lube can help enhance the experience by giving your toys a slippery feel to enhance your sensation play.”

Once you’ve experimented with removing one of your senses, you might want to move on to other aspects of BDSM.

“BDSM includes an enormous range of experiences like blindfolds, temperature play, role play, and even a massage,” explained Lagman. “Sometimes the anticipation is more exciting than the intensity.”

If you are going to explore anything like rope tying, choking or impact play, it’s important to learn the safest way of engaging in these activities.

Websites like Beducated have great beginner courses for these activities. And remember: practise makes perfect, and that doesn’t mean you have to push your body to the extreme.

“Whether you’re experimenting with cuffs, sleeves, or other BDSM accessories, your body should never have to fight against the gear you’re using,” Boyer said.

Another fun way to explore BDSM is to buy a sex toy set and figure out how to use it together, using the expert tips above.

You don’t have to dive into anything extreme straight off the bat, but if you want to then at least you’ll have the option.

We’re always talking about foreplay (as we should be) but aftercare is just as important and fun – especially when exploring BDSM.

“Aftercare is intentionally reconnecting once the scene ends to help you get back to the real world slowly and gently,” Lagman explained.

“This could mean cuddling, watching TV together, spending time together quietly, being alone. Take as much time as you need to ground yourself. Some people need five minutes, others need five days. Both are okay.”