Politics

Labour’s Islamophobia ban spells the death of English liberty

Published

2 hours ago

6 April 2026

Labour’s Islamophobia ban spells the death of English liberty

There is a schoolteacher in England whose name I cannot tell you, because he was forced to change it. In March 2021, he showed his year nine class at West Yorkshire’s Batley Grammar School a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad – a reproduction of the infamous Charlie Hebdo cartoon from 2015 – as part of a lesson on blasphemy. It was five months after Samuel Paty, a French teacher who had conducted a similar lesson, was beheaded by a jihadist in a suburb of Paris. One might have expected, in the aftermath of a colleague’s decapitation, some institutional solidarity. One would have been naive.

A mob formed. Death threats followed. The Batley teacher’s children slept on mattresses on the floor in temporary accommodation. The headteacher ‘unequivocally’ apologised for the offence caused – a sentence that, if British liberalism ever requires an epitaph, would serve admirably. The teacher was suspended. He was later cleared, but it made no difference. He developed PTSD and became suicidal. When he visited a police station after relocating, officers told him he had ‘made it harder for them by moving’. Dame Sara Khan’s government-commissioned review described him as ‘totally and utterly failed’ by every institution that owed him protection. Five years on, he remains in hiding. Nobody has been arrested for threatening his life. No politician of any consequence has dared say his name.

I begin here because the government’s new 47-page cohesion strategy, Protecting What Matters, begins with him, too. It promises to ‘stand against those who try to intimidate, threaten and harass others because they are offended by so-called “blasphemy”’. It declares: ‘We do not recognise blasphemy law in the UK.’ And then, with exquisite bureaucratic care, it then constructs the apparatus of one. It builds the scaffold and hangs a sign on it reading, ‘Not A Scaffold’.

For this cohesion strategy contains Labour’s non-statutory definition of ‘anti-Muslim hostility’. On the same day it was released, communities secretary Steve Reed announced the appointment of an anti-Muslim-hostility tsar (because this is how we govern now) to ‘champion efforts across the UK to tackle hostility and hatred directed at Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim’. Four million pounds have been committed to the task.

The timing is instructive. Reed’s announcement arrived within 10 days of Labour losing the Gorton and Denton by-election, a seat held since 1935, to the Greens, after Muslim voters deserted Labour over Gaza. It also came days after Starmer praised British Muslims as ‘the face of modern Britain’ at a Ramadan iftar. The cause of this policy was not a review of evidence. It was the count at a leisure centre in Greater Manchester at two o’clock in the morning.

Credit where it is due. The government has abandoned the word ‘Islamophobia’. The old definition, adopted in 2019 by Labour for internal party matters, and by some 50 local councils, defined Islamophobia as ‘a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’. This was always a category error masquerading as moral insight: Islam is not a race and the Equality Act does not recognise Muslims as an ethnic group. Most remarkably, the report accompanying the definition listed as an example of Islamophobia the act of accusing Muslims of exaggerating Islamophobia. The definition was immunised against its own critique. One could not challenge the framework of Islamophobia without being branded Islamophobic.

The replacement definition drops ‘Muslimness’ and ‘racism’. These are genuine improvements on a definition so catastrophically flawed that the government had to disown it last year. However, to celebrate this is to congratulate a man for removing his boot from your throat only to place it on your chest.

Now, examine the new definition, because the language is everything, and Orwell would have spotted the trick at a glance. Its first paragraph condemns criminal acts directed at Muslims: violence, vandalism, harassment. Every behaviour described is already illegal under the Public Order Act, the Equality Act, the Crime and Disorder Act and the Protection from Harassment Act. Reed told the Commons that, ‘You can’t tackle a problem if you can’t describe it’. But these problems are already described, in legislation carrying criminal penalties. If the definition is not redundant, then it is intended to do something the law does not. We are entitled to ask what.

The second paragraph provides the answer. It condemns ‘prejudicial stereotyping’ of Muslims, ‘irrespective of their actual opinions, beliefs or actions as individuals’. Attend to that clause, because it does the heavy lifting. The government has written a definition in which the truth of a claim is explicitly irrelevant to whether stating it constitutes ‘stereotyping’. If polling shows 52 per cent of British Muslims believe homosexuality should be illegal, is citing that figure prejudice or sociology? If Protecting What Matters itself acknowledges the threat of Islamist extremism – accounting for three quarters of the police’s counter-terror workload and 94 per cent of all terror-related deaths in the past 25 years – is observing this a stereotype? The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, for all its flaws, provides eleven illustrative examples. The anti-Muslim hostility definition, in contrast, offers three paragraphs of abstract language and no examples at all. That vagueness is not an oversight. It is the mechanism. It is the chilling effect itself.

Reed assures parliament that there is ‘absolutely no question of blasphemy laws by the back door’. One has heard this before. Every government crackdown on speech is accompanied by the insistence that free speech will be protected. The Online Safety Act said this. The 2019 Islamophobia definition said it, too.

But these assurances simply won’t wash. In 2020, Trevor Phillips, a former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was suspended from Labour for ‘Islamophobia’ when all he did was cite the disproportionate involvement of Pakistani Muslim men in grooming-gang cases. In Rotherham, Rochdale and Telford, professionals hesitated to investigate child sexual exploitation for fear of the accusation. In 2022, Cineworld pulled The Lady of Heaven – a film about the daughter of Muhammad – from every screen in the country after protests. This has been happening for years, even without a government-endorsed definition, which will now formalise, validate and accelerate a pattern already well established.

Against this, England possesses one legislative safeguard of extraordinary clarity. Section 29J of the Public Order Act (the Waddington Amendment) provides that nothing shall prohibit ‘discussion, criticism or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions or the beliefs or practices of their adherents’. Note the sweep: not merely criticism but ridicule, insult and abuse. The new definition does not repeal Section 29J. It builds a parallel architecture of codes, guidance and tsars in every space where 29J does not apply: universities, workplaces, councils, the NHS. One system protects the right to ridicule religion. The other makes exercising it professionally suicidal.

The most important feature of this debate is who the critics of the government’s definition are. Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s own terrorism-legislation reviewer, warned he was ‘against an Islamophobia definition because it’s directed at a thing, at religion, rather than an anti-Muslim hatred law, which is about protecting people’. Fiyaz Mughal, founder of Tell MAMA – an organisation that records anti-Muslim hate in the UK – warned the process could be exploited by ‘Islamist groups and those affiliated with Muslim Brotherhood front groups’. The National Secular Society called it ‘unnecessary and misguided’.

These are not GB News talking heads. They are liberals, secularists and Muslims who understand something the government will not grasp: that the people most harmed are not comfortable commentators but the vulnerable: ex-Muslims facing death threats for apostasy, Muslim women suffering from honour-based violence, grooming-gang survivors whose testimony was buried because professionals feared the accusation. For these people, the free criticism of Islam is not an intellectual luxury. It is a matter of physical survival.

No religion deserves its own tsar. To assault a Muslim is a crime. To discriminate against a Muslim is unlawful. But to say Islam promotes the subordination of women is not a crime. To mock the proposition that a seventh-century Arabian merchant received the final revelation of the creator of the universe is not a crime. The capacity to give offence is not an unfortunate byproduct of free speech. It is its essential purpose. This is not about protecting Muslims from hatred. It is about protecting Islam from criticism. Those are two completely different things.

England abolished its blasphemy laws in 2008, after a struggle that ran from Milton through Mill through the imprisonment of Charles Bradlaugh to the final repeal. Somewhere in England, a teacher who exercised those hard-won freedoms cannot go home. Protecting What Matters expresses sympathy with him and promises to stand against those who harassed him. Then, with four million pounds and a freshly minted tsar, it builds a machine that seems almost designed to produce the next Batley-style outrage.

Owen Shapell is PhD researcher in social sciences.

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Strictly Come Dancing: 17 Stars Rumoured To Be Replacing Tess Daly And Claudia Winkleman

Published

25 minutes ago

6 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Strictly Come Dancing: 17 Stars Rumoured To Be Replacing Tess Daly And Claudia Winkleman

It’s looking increasingly like Strictly Come Dancing will be a noticeably different show when it returns to our screens in the autumn.

Over the last few months, a number of the show’s resident professional dancers have parted ways with Strictly under a variety of circumstances, while it’s also been suggested that companion show It Takes Two could be getting something of an overhaul, too.

Then, of course, there’s the search for a new presenting team in the wake of Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s exits at the end of last year.

Before her departure, Tess had been with Strictly since its inception in 2004, with Claudia joining on a permanent basis a decade later, taking over presenting duties from the late Sir Bruce Forsyth.

When the duo began hosting together, they made history as the first female presenting team to front a primetime show, and there’s no denying that Strictly viewers are going to miss their unique dynamic on those wintery Saturday nights.

But, with Tess and Claudia having now left the ballroom for good, fans are now looking to the future, and speculating over exactly who could be brought in to fill their shoes.

Rumours began circulating late last year, with The Sun publishing a list of names supposedly doing “chemistry tests” with the aim of landing the coveted Strictly role.

Since then, there’ve been a fair few developments, including one report claiming that BBC bosses could be looking to boost Strictly’s presenting team from two to three to shake things up even more.

As we wait for further news, here’s a quick round-up of everyone who’s been rumoured for the gig so far…

Zoe Ball

When we first heard that there were two vacant spots on the Strictly presenting line-up, our minds immediately went to Zoe Ball, who competed in the third series before going on to front companion show It Takes Two for 10 seasons.

She’s even guest hosted the main show, filling in for Claudia Winkleman back in 2014.

Zoe has also expressed interest in the job, with the rumour mill going into overdrive when she was included in The Sun’s supposed presenter shortlist, with the tabloid naming her the “frontrunner” for the gig as recently as February.

Emma Willis

The Sun’s piece naming Zoe Ball as a frontrunner claimed that the job search had become a “straight shoot-out” between her and another popular British presenter, Emma Willis.

Emma is best known for her work fronting a variety of reality shows over the years, including The Voice, The Circle and Big Brother.

More regularly, she’s also become a regular face on This Morning, and gained a more international audience when she began co-hosting the UK edition of Love Is Blind alongside her famous husband Matt Willis.

According to The Sun’s “source”, the BBC were hoping to pair either Zoe or Emma with a “more left-field person” with a “female stand-up comedian” being the preferred choice.

Mel Giedroyc

Just days after this, the Daily Mail published a piece saying that Mel Giedroyc was being “eyed” for a presenting role at the helm of Strictly.

It was claimed that Mel’s “gentle touch” and ability to “use humour to relieve [any] tension”, as displayed during her time in the Great British Bake Off tent, had made her a favourite for the job.

Mel can currently be seen in action in the latest season of Last One Laughing, and has recently competed on The Masked Singer and fronted the TV quiz show adaptation of Pictionary.

She also took part in the annual Strictly Christmas special back in 2021, where she was paired with Neil Jones.

Miranda Hart

Self-professed Strictly super-fan Miranda Hart was mentioned as a possible new host by The Sun in late March 2026.

According to the tabloid, Miranda was being considered for the role due to the fact that she and Claudia Winkleman share a similar sense of humour, with a source describing the rumoured signing as a “massive coup for the BBC”.

Angela Scanlon

Another former Strictly star rumoured to be on the BBC’s “golden ten” shortlist late last year, Angela Scanlon competed on the show in 2023, where she was paired up with now-reigning champion Carlos Gu.

The Irish presenter is best known for her work on shows like Robot Wars, Your Home Made Perfect and The One Show, and will next be seen trying her luck on The Celebrity Apprentice.

In March 2026, the Daily Mail said it was increasingly likely that Angela would bag one of the Strictly presenting jobs, following “meetings over the past few weeks with show bosses”.

Rylan Clark

A week after the Mail named Angela Scanlon as a top pick to take over as one of Strictly’s new hosts, the same publication claimed that she and Rylan Clark were a potential new duo.

They cited a “Strictly source” who suggested that bosses liked the idea of creating a new presenting pair rather than relying on an existing TV duo, and that Angela and Rylan would definitely fit the bill.

Meanwhile, The Sun claimed more recently that bosses were looking to add a male presenter into the mix, rather than trying to replicate Claudia and Tess’ dynamic, with Rylan one of three names mentioned as being in the frame.

Like Zoe Ball, Rylan previously fronted the spin-off show It Takes Two for four seasons between 2019 and 2022, and is a regular fixture on the BBC thanks to his Radio 2 show, his coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest and his travel series Rob And Rylan’s Grand Tour, which he co-presents with Rob Rinder (more on him in a sec).

Bradley Walsh

Even before he was included on The Sun’s list of the “golden ten” stars supposedly in consideration for the Strictly gig, Bradley Walsh was named in the press as a top pick to take over at the helm of the dance show.

Currently known for his work at the helm of The Chase, Gladiators and Blankety Blank, the tabloid reported in November that Bradley was being “lined up” by higher-ups at the BBC to take over from Tess and Claudia, as part of an apparent “revamp” for the show.

Last month, The Sun revived the speculation when they included him in their shortlist of three male stars reportedly in consideration to join Strictly’s new presenting team.

However, despite the persistent rumours, Bradley has repeatedly cast doubt on the suggestion that he’ll be taking over at the helm of Strictly.

Alex Jones

Last year, when Bradey’s name was mentioned in the press for the first time as a possible Strictly host, The One Show host Alex Jones was also suggested as a potential co-host.

Back in November 2025, The Sun cited “insiders” who claimed that Alex and Bradley were being “courted as the perfect partnership” to take over the show.

Later, Alex was also one of the 10 names listed to be on the rumoured shortlist, and while many other names have been mentioned in the months since, the tabloid insisted as recently as March that she was “still the favourite” in producers’ eyes.

Fleur East

Since competing on The X Factor in 2014, Fleur East has carved a new career for herself as a presenter, fronting Hits Radio’s breakfast show, as well as a recurring segment on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

Fleur has most notably fronted Strictly’s companion show It Takes Two since 2023, a year after competing on the main show, making it to the final alongside her professional partner Vito Coppola.

In March, The Sun mentioned that the Sax singer was still “in the mix”, indicating she could still land one of the coveted presenting slots.

Johannes Radebe

One of the most recent additions to the ever-growing list of rumoured hosts is Striclty pro Johannes Radebe.

Johannes has been a favourite of Strictly fans ever since he first joined as a professional dancer in 2018, and in March, The Sun named him as a wildcard third male star near the top of bosses’ wishlists, alongside Bradley Walsh and Rylan Clark.

If the South African performer did land the job, it wouldn’t be the first time a former Strictly pro moved to a different role within the show.

Current It Takes Two host Janette Manrara was previously a pro dancer on Strictly, as was resident judge Anton Du Beke.

Alan Carr

Tess and Claudia’s Strictly exits were announced in the middle of last year’s series of The Celebrity Traitors, meaning plenty of people’s minds immediately went to scene-stealer Alan Carr as a favourite for the hosting job.

Already a popular stand-up comic, Alan has plenty of TV experience to his name now, not just as host of his talk show Chatty Man, but also series like Picture Slam, Interior Design Masters and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

Unfortunately, he quickly poured water on the rumours, insisting the gig would be “too nerve-racking” for him.

That being said, he was still named in The Sun’s subsequent list of possible hosts, even if the man himself seems less keen on the suggestion.

Amanda Holden

Also on that list was Amanda Holden, with whom Alan has now shared the screen on a number of occasions.

Like Alan, Amanda was mentioned on The Sun’s rumoured shortlist, but also dispelled the rumours, insisting that her commitments with Britain’s Got Talent would mean she wouldn’t be able to do Strictly.

“We are so flattered to be in that mix,” she told her Heart listeners. “[But] we both are not doing it.”

Holly Willoughby

Of course, it was always going to be inevitable that rumours about Holly Willoughby landing the gig would also start to circulate.

Former Dancing On Ice host Holly – who has been keeping something of a low profile since her This Morning exit in 2023 – was named as the bookies’ favourite for the hosting gig almost immediately, after which Daily Mail reporter Richard Eden wrote in his column that he’d heard from former BBC One controller Peter Fincham that a reliable source had told him that the job was Holly’s for the taking.

He alleged: “My hairdresser also cuts the hair of a well-known channel controller. What’s said in Harry’s the hairdresser stays in Harry’s. But he says with great confidence that Holly Willoughby will take over.”

Tabloid reports stretching as far back as 2023 even suggested that the BBC had been hoping to “lure” Holly over to them from ITV via a rumoured offer to present Strictly, two years before Tess and Claudia even announced they were departing.

More recently, Holly was included on the “golden ten” list published in The Sun.

Alison Hammond

Daytime legend Alison Hammond was also reported by The Sun to be one of the stars undergoing “chemistry tests” to try and land the co-presenting gig on Strictly Come Dancing.

Following this, she made an appearance on Loose Women where the Great British Bake Off presenter made no secret of her hopes to end up with the Strictly hosting job.

When she was still more of a beloved cult figure than a full-blown national treasure, Alison competed on Strictly back in 2014, where she was partnered with Aljaz Skorjanec.

Rob Rinder

The Sun’s much-cited piece about the search for the new Strictly hosts mentioned that bosses were considering existing presenting teams, mentioning travelogue stars Rylan and Rob Rinder.

Rob – who first rose to fame as the host of Judge Rinder and now regularly co-presents ITV’s Good Morning Britain – was also reported to be taking “chemistry tests” with a variety of different potential co-hosts with the prospect of forming a new duo to front Strictly Come Dancing.

Oti Mabuse

Oti Mabuse is undoubtedly one of the most popular Strictly pros in the show’s history, and since parting ways with the show, has become a regular fixture on screen, judging Dancing On Ice, fronting the dating show Romeo & Duet, briefly landing her own ITV daytime series and regular popping up on the Loose Women panel.

The same day Tess and Claudia’s departures were announced, Strictly staple Craig Revel Horwood (now the show’s longest-serving fixture) named Oti as his top pick to inherit the presenting job, alongside Alan Carr.

La Voix

We are going to continue manifesting this as long as we possibly can, alright? Give. Her. The. Job.

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90s Style Is Back: What To Shop To Embrace The Trend

Published

38 minutes ago

6 April 2026

NewsAdmin

90s Style Is Back: What To Shop To Embrace The Trend

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

There’s just something about the 90s that we can’t shake. Maybe it’s our obsession with Carolyn Bessette Kennedy after bingeing Ryan Murphy’s Love Story that’s fuelling our desire to embrace minimalism.

Either way, we have to give it to the 90s: the penchant for sleek monochrome looks is a timeless one.

So much so that the style defined by the likes of Jennifer Anniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Sarah Michelle Gellar has never really left us – it seems like every year we declare the fateful decade is back in fashion.

But if you, like the rest of our Instagram feed, are feeling the urge to jump on the nostalgia train, here are the best 90s-inspired dresses, jeans, shoes, and shirts to shop now.

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Babies Cast: Where You’ve Seen The Stars Of The BBC Drama Before

Published

1 hour ago

6 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Paapa Essiedu as Kwame in I May Destroy You

The new BBC drama Babies has been met with a wave of critical acclaim.

Directed by Stefan Golaszewski (the creator of hit shows like Him & Her and Marriage), the series has been described in early reviews as a “bittersweet” exploration of fertility struggles, weaving moments of humour throughout its more hard-to-watch sequences.

Babies primarily focusses on a couple in their 30s – played by Paapa Essiedu and Siobhán Cullen – who face repeated setbacks in their journey to become parents, with the show exploring how this affects their relationship and those around them.

It also features a cast of talented performers that you most likely recognise from a variety of film and TV projects.

Here’s a quick guide to where you’ve seen the stars before…

Paapa Essiedu

Paapa Essiedu first rose to prominence after appearing in Michela Coel’s I May Destroy You, which earned him an Emmy and Bafta nomination.

He also since appeared in in Gangs Of London, the Channel 5 miniseries Anne Boleyn and the Sky’s trippy sci-fi offering The Lazarus Project.

In 2023, he appeared as Gaap in the Demon 79 episode of Black Mirror, before starring opposite Keira Knightley in the crime drama Black Doves.

Most recently, he appeared in seasons two and three of The Capture as Isaac Tuner, an MP who is deepfaked on national television, and becomes embroiled in a news feed tampering conspiracy.

Later this year, he’s due to appear as Severus Snape in HBO’s new adaptation of the Harry Potter novels.

Siobhán Cullen

Irish actor Siobhán Cullen is probably best known for playing Caroline in ITV’s Irish comedy-drama The Dry, as well as her work in the 2024 Netflix comedy Bodkin.

Siobhán first found fame playing a supporting role in the BBC drama Paula, and appeared in two episodes of the divorce drama The Split.

Following this, she took the lead in the ITV crime drama The Long Call, and had a minor role in the Dalgliesh episode Shroud For A Nightingale.

Siobhán is currently filming the new Highlander movie, alongside Henry Cavill and Russell Crowe.

Charlotte Riley

Charlotte Riley has been on our screens for almost 20 years since making her debut in the BBC Three sitcom Grownups back in 2007.

She later made a splash when she appeared alongside her future husband Tom Hardy in ITV’s 2008 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, before going on to appear in three episodes of DCI Banks as the murdered Lucy Payne.

Following this, Charlotte starred in all eight episodes of Ken Follett’s adaptation World Without End and played Arabelle Strange in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

She has also appeared in seasons two and four of Peaky Blinders as the wealthy widow May Fitz Carleton, and starred in Danny Boyle’s John Paul Getty miniseries as lawyer Robina Lund.

On the big screen, you may recognise Charlotte from Edge Of Tomorrow, Swimming With Men or London Has Fallen.

More recently, Charlotte has had roles in Apple TV+’s comedy-drama Trying and in Amazon Prime’s thriller Malice.

You can next see her in Master Of The Universe alongside Nicholas Galitzine, where she’s set to play Queen Marlena Glenn.

Jack Bannon

Jack is most recognisable for playing Sam Thursday in Endeavour and taking the lead as Alfred in the recent Pennyworth TV show, based on the iconic DC Comics character.

His other TV credits include Medici, The Darkness and the recent Netflix medical drama Pulse.

In film, he played Alan Turing’s friend Christopher in the 2014 biopic The Imitation Game, appeared as a young tanker in Fury and starred as Felix in the 2016 British coming-of-age drama Kids In Love, alongside Cara Delevingne.

He is currently filming the upcoming Tomb Raider series alongside Sophie Turner, although his role has yet to be specified.

Nadine Marshall

Nadine Marshall, who plays Stephen’s mother, first captured viewers’ attention when she was cast as Sally in the sitcom The Smoking Room and has been a regular on our screens since the early 2000s.

Over her 25-year career, she has appeared in a variety of projects, from the sketch show Little Miss Jocelyn to the kids’ TV show Old Jack’s Boat alongside Bernard Cribbins and Robbie Coltrane, as well as the Channel 4 drama National Treasure.

In recent history, you might have seen Nadine as DS Shola O’Halloran in Sky drama Save Me, DSU Marianne Hamilton in Trigger Point or DI Sarah Torres in Silent Witness.

Gary Beadle

Gary appears in Babies as Stephen’s dad, but you’re most likely to know him for playing Paul Trueman in more than 300 episodes of EastEnders.

Although best recognised for the BBC soap, he has also appeared as Clem in Andor, Elyas Machera in Amazon Prime fantasy The Wheel Of Time and as Thick Rick in the Netflix spin-off The Gentleman.

Elizabeth Rider

Elizabeth Rider has been a television stalwart since the early 1980s.

As well as playing DCC Andrea Wise across five episodes of Line Of Duty, she has had minor roles in numerous TV shows, including Casualty, Heartbeat and Doctors.

Soap fans might also recognise for her playing Ashley Peacock’s biological mother in Coronation Street, or for her 10-episode EastEnders arc as nurse Jill Green.

Simona Brown

Simona Brown, who plays Bella in Babies, is best known for starring in the 2021 Netflix miniseries Behind Her Eyes.

She also had leading roles in the ITV series Him, the 2019 Florence Pugh BBC drama The Little Drummer Girl and the Channel 4 cyber thriller Kiss Me First.

Babies is currently available to stream in full on the BBC iPlayer, with episodes also airing weekly on Monday nights on BBC One.

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After The Drama, 4 More Zendaya Shows And Films Coming Out In 2026

Published

1 hour ago

6 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Robert Pattinson and Zendaya in The Drama

When we look back at 2026 in the future, we’re probably going to be saying that the year belonged to Zendaya.

The woman of the hour has no fewer than three upcoming movies in the year ahead – not including one that’s in cinemas now – and she’s also set to reprise the TV role that put her on the map in the first place.

Outside of her work, she’s also been at the centre of rumours that she and her long-time partner Tom Holland quietly tied the knot in secret, after confirming last year that they were engaged.

Here’s your quick guide to everything Zendaya currently has in the pipeline, from her divisive new romantic drama to the return of Euphoria…

The Drama (in cinemas now)

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play a couple about to celebrate their big day in The Drama.

However, the pair’s relationship slowly begins to unravel when a dark revelation about the bride-to-be’s past during a drinking game leads both of them to ask themselves some big questions.

The latest film from Sick Of Myself and Dream Scenario director Kristoffer Borgli, The Drama holds a big secret that is being kept under wraps for the time being to avoid spoilers – but the movie was already sparking backlash and debate before it had even been released, with early reviews suggesting the movie could be one of 2026’s most uncomfortable and controversial.

Euphoria (12 April)

Zendaya as Rue in season three of Euphoria

It’s been a long time coming, but the third and final season of Euphoria is finally coming later this month.

In the final outing of Sam Levison’s acclaimed teen drama, its central characters are all grown up, but no matter how far they’ve come, there’s clearly only so far that any of them can run from their pasts.

Zendaya reprises her two-time Emmy-winning role as recovering drug addict Rue in the new episodes, which also see the return of cast members Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, Alexa Demie, Colman Domingo and recent Oscar nominee Jacob Elordi.

Meanwhile, the new season will be one of the final on-screen roles for Eric Dane, who died earlier this year at the age of 53.

The Odyssey (17 July)

Christopher Nolan is taking a big swing when it comes to his return to cinemas following the mammoth success of his Oscar-winning epic Oppenheimer.

For his latest ambitious project, he’s taking on the classic The Odyssey, marking his first time ever shooting an entire film with IMAX cameras.

The star-studded ensemble is led by Matt Damon as Odysseus, with a cast including Nolan regulars Anne Hathaway, Benny Safdie, Elliot Page and Robert Pattinson, as well as Mia Goth, Himesh Patel, Travis Scott and Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o.

Reports have claimed that Zendaya will be playing the Greek goddess Athena, with her rumoured husband Tom Holland playing Matt Damon’s on-screen son Telemachus.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (31 July)

Zendaya as MJ in the Spider-Man film Brand New Day

Just two weeks after the long-awaited release of The Odyssey, Zendaya and Tom Holland will be reunited once again in the newest film in the Spider-Man canon Brand New Day.

Four years on from the events of No Way Home, the world has seemingly forgotten that Peter Parker ever existed, including his long-term girlfriend MJ, who a recently-released trailer revealed had moved on with someone new, much to our hero’s chagrin.

Joining Tom and Zendaya in their latest Marvel adventure will be Stranger Things star Sadie Sink, Severance favourite Tramell Tillman and MCU fixture Mark Ruffalo, playing Bruce Banner, the alias of The Incredible Hulk.

Dune: Part Three (18 December)

Rounding off a huge year for Zendaya will be the third (and final!) instalment in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune series.

Based on the novel Dune Messiah, the film will see Zendaya back with series regulars Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, Javier Bardem and Rebecca Ferguson, alongside some exciting new additions.

Remarkably, Dune: Part Three will also be the Challengers star’s third time sharing the screen with Robert Pattinson in the space of a year, following The Drama and The Odyssey.

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Therapists Explain Why Protecting Kids From Anxiety Is Bad

Published

1 hour ago

6 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Never making kids face the thing that makes them anxious will only impede their confidence.

No parent wants to sit back and watch their child experience anxiety over any situation, whether it’s going to a new dance school, a football game, trying new food or meeting new kids at school.

And while most parents have the best intentions, many actually come to their child’s rescue during moments of distress – which can be hugely detrimental to their child now and as they grow up, therapists told HuffPost.

The best way to help your child grow through anxiety and learn to manage it isn’t exactly a natural instinct. Here’s what to know:

The number one way parents fuel anxiety, according to therapists

“I think, in particular with anxiety … the biggest mistake that we make as parents is that when we see anxiety in our kids, we jump straight into that ‘I want to protect this child from this experience.’ So, we go straight to protection mode,” said Cheryl Donaldson, a licensed marriage and family therapist.

Parents don’t want their kids to feel anxiety, of course, but swooping in to take them out of an anxious situation or fix it for them isn’t a way to empower kids, Donaldson noted. It’s actually doing the opposite.

Research suggests that accommodating anxiety makes it worse, said Hannah Scheuer, a licensed clinical social worker with Self Space in Washington state.

“I’m both a child and family therapist and a mom, and I’m just gonna say that watching our child struggle and suffer is one of the hardest things,” Scheuer said. “And if we accommodate and give in, we will make it worse. Accommodation is essentially allowing avoidance, and avoidance feels really, really good in the moment, even to adults.”

For instance, if your teenager is anxious about driving on the highway, avoiding it when teaching them to drive only makes the experience scarier and more stressful when they eventually have to do it.

“It just makes it worse and worse, it leads to long-term negative outcomes,” Scheuer said. “That accommodation, that saying, ‘Oh no, you don’t have to do this thing that you’re upset about or scared of,’ it does temporarily alleviate that child’s distress. Then, what it reinforces is this perception that the thing that they don’t want to do actually warrants their anxiety, and so that gives them more reason to feel the anxiety.”

“Anxiety is our body’s mechanism to tell us that we either need to act in some way … or, in the case of kids, anxiety is telling them, ‘This is a new skill I need. This is a new experience. I need more skills. I need to know how to manage this,’” Donaldson said.

It’s important to validate your child’s emotions while supporting them through anxiety

Supporting children through anxious moments takes a three-fold approach, said Laura Buscemi, a licensed professional counsellor at Thriveworks in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

“We have to validate, we have to regulate and we have to mitigate,” she said.

Validation looks like normalising the anxiety and sharing that it’s something we all experience, Buscemi said. Regulation means helping your child learn to manage their anxiety through a variety of solutions, like breathing exercises and movement. Mitigation helps a child understand that temporary discomfort, such as facing the situation that makes them anxious, leads to long-term relief.

“Facing fears ultimately decreases them – and we prove to ourselves that things aren’t as scary as we’ve built up in our mind, or that maybe we’re just braver than it was scary,” Buscemi said.

“The research evidence does also show that what we need to do as parents is to provide support and confidence,” Scheuer noted. “What that looks like is supporting and validating the feelings while also showing confidence in their child’s ability to actually do the thing to cope with the anxiety.”

For example, if your child gets really anxious about going to football practice and has meltdowns in the car on the way to practice, a parent could say, “Wow, I hear you. I know you’re feeling really scared and upset right now, but I also know that you can do really hard things and you’re going to be OK,” Scheuer suggested.

“It’s that mix of validation of the feeling, without accommodating the anxiety and providing confidence that they can do it,” Scheuer explained. This one sentence isn’t going to erase your child’s anxiety and stop the meltdown, but as this encouragement comes up week after week, soccer will feel less and less hard for your child.

“And continuing to inspire that confidence … is going to really make a big impact, and that’s how we build resilient kids,” Scheuer said.

Some kids (and parents) require professional support for anxiety management

Many parents will be able to manage their kids’ anxiety through different calming and exposure techniques, but some kids (and parents) may require additional support from a mental health professional – and that’s perfectly OK.

There are certain signs that a child’s anxiety requires support from a therapist or other professional.

“If the anxiety is getting in the way of them being able to be in a relationship with other kids, go to a friend’s house … being able to go to practices and do different things, you want to reach out for help,” Donaldson said.

If you notice your child frequently worrying or frequently in distress, those are also red flags.

“Also, with younger kids, they don’t really have the language to talk about anxiety, so sometimes we see it as like more physical symptoms,” Scheuer noted. This includes stomachaches, having trouble sleeping, and general restlessness.

“That is something that I would say, if that’s pretty common, maybe they need some extra support,” Scheuer said.

If therapy or counselling isn’t accessible, your child’s school should have a social worker or school counsellor who can provide support, Scheuer said. Talking to your paediatrician could also be a good idea.

Managing anxiety in kids often involves the parents, especially if the kids are younger.

“So, it’s not just saying, ‘Oh, fix the kid’s symptoms.’ It’s also … what strategies can we give to the parents to help really make sure that everybody has the tools to help this kid navigate these symptoms?” Scheuer said.

It’s also on the parents to consider how they react to anxious moments in their lives. Think about it: if mum or dad doesn’t know how to manage their own anxiety, they likely won’t be able to help their child, either.

Ask yourself what you feel when your child gets anxious. Does it make you anxious, too? If so, what do you do to calm down?

“Leading with your own leadership” is an important way to go about this, according to Donaldson. If you know deep breathing helps you feel less anxious, gently guide your child toward that. Or, if you know that getting out for a walk reduces your anxiety, gently encourage your child to try it.

“You want them to know that you’re partnering, that you have answers that are going to be really helpful for them,” Donaldson said.

If other techniques and interventions don’t work, “sometimes the kids need to go on medication,” Donaldson noted.

Watching your child experience anxiety isn’t a pleasant experience for anyone, but it helps build life skills and confidence that are tough to grow later in life. The ability to live with discomfort and manage anxiety is important throughout the lifespan, as someone takes a big test, gets their first job, experiences their first break-up, faces job rejection and more.

“I really like to emphasise with my clients that we’re trying to push through temporary discomfort to achieve long-term relief,” Buscemi said.

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Riyad al-Amour dies after years of torture in Israeli prisons

Published

12 hours ago

5 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Riyad al-Amour dies after years of torture in Israeli prisons

After years of systematic torture and medical neglect in Israeli occupation prisons, former Palestinian political prisoner, Riyad al-Amour, has died.

Riyad al-Amour — 23 years of torture and abuse in Israeli occupation prisons

56-year-old Riyad al-Amour, from the village of Tuqu’ in Bethlehem, was arrested in 2002 and spent 23 years behind bars, before being released and exiled to Egypt as part of the most recent prisoner exchange during the so-called ceasefire agreement in October 2025.

In a statement, on 3 April, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society & Commission of Detainees’ Affairs said they “hold occupation authorities fully responsible for his death”. Al Amour endured prolonged interrogations and severe torture while in prison, causing him to lose hearing in one of his ears. He also suffered serious medical neglect, and was denied a new pacemaker by the occupation’s prison services for more than a decade.

His health was critical when he was released so he underwent multiple surgeries in the brief six months he spent outside prison before passing away.

The most violent period in the Palestinian prisoner movement has been since October 2023

Despite the harsh conditions he faced and the torture he endured, al Amour devoted years of his detention to serving fellow sick prisoners in the “Ramla Prison Clinic,” where he spent most of his imprisonment.

The last two years has become the most violent in the history of the Palestinian prisoner movement. Physicians for Human Rights-Israel revealed the details of almost 100 Palestinian prisoners killed while in Israeli occupation detention, since 7 October, 2023. All died from medical neglect, malnutrition, assault or torture.

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) claims that the Israeli occupation’s torture and neglect of Palestinian prisoners is a “deliberate state policy of collective punishment“.

His death comes just days after the Israeli occupation’s approval of a law which legalises the execution of Palestinian political prisoners.

Featured image via author

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Trump praises Allah in bizarre Easter message

Published

12 hours ago

5 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Trump praises Allah in bizarre Easter message

In a bizarre and violent Easter Sunday message, Donald Trump has praised Allah. While there’s nothing wrong with a man praising a god in any language, it does read a little perversely when he’s simultaneously threatening war crimes against the Muslim nation of Iran:

🚨🇮🇷 NEW: President Trump says “praise be to Allah” as he threatens Iran
“Open the fuckin’ Strait you crazy bastards” pic.twitter.com/e8tbQq1zA7
— Politics Global (@PolitlcsGlobal) April 5, 2026

Trump — War crimes

While the above is shorter than a lot of Trump’s recent rants, there’s still a lot to highlight. Firstly, the opener:

Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran.

Trump is threatening to repeat the attacks on power plants and bridges which the US has already subjected Iran too. As attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime, this means Trump is openly threatening to commit war crimes.

What the US is doing in Iran is barbaric.
Trump is intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure, and boasting about it.
The US military launched a double-tap strike on a bridge with no military activity, massacring Iranian civilians who were picnicking.
This is terrorism. pic.twitter.com/BWGfd8niST
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— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 3, 2026

In future generations, people will ask why American politicians didn’t move to remove Trump when he was blatantly threatening to violate international law. Hopefully, said politicians will be answering such questions from their prison cells.

Next, Trump said:

There will be nothing like it!!!

By this, he means ‘nothing like it besides the previously committed war crimes I just admitted to‘.

He continued:

Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell

Not sure you get to call people “crazy” when you’re the one who started this futile war in the first place.

The US and Israel have repeatedly attacked Iran despite peace talks continuing. Arguably, Iran’s response has been incredibly rational.

To avoid any risk of the US provoking a conflict every twelve months, they’ve sought to demonstrate how costly hostilities will be. “Crazy” would be for them to engage with Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu as if they were honest actors.

1) Trump is being driven insane by his inability to defeat Iran.
2) This is a threat to commit unspeakable war crimes.
3) If he does this, Iran will target energy and water desalination infrastructure in the Gulf, triggering a global depression. pic.twitter.com/q4igi5Pk9s
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) April 5, 2026

As we’ve reported, Trump appears to be counting down towards some sort of extreme event:

BREAKING: President Trump announces he will be having a news conference with the US Military at 1 PM ET tomorrow.
This is just 3 hours after his “48 hour warning” to Iran expires.
He also just declared Tuesday as “power plant and bridge day.”
We will be covering it real-time.
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) April 5, 2026
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Praise be

Trump ends with what’s presumably sarcasm (we can’t say definitively, because he’s clearly not with it):

Praise be to Allah.

If Trump’s hoping to come out of this looking good, he’s going to need to send praise to more than Allah. Because at this point, nothing less than a miracle is going to clean up his mess.

This is a hell of a message for the American President to put out on Easter, anyway — especially considering he’s the candidate of choice for the American evangelicals.

Featured image via White House

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Reform UK nosedive in Scotland following candidate chaos

Published

12 hours ago

5 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Reform UK nosedive in Scotland following candidate chaos

As we’ve reported, Reform UK is having a nightmarish local election campaign. Now, these problems are starting to bear out in polling:

🗳️Reform UK supports plummets in Scotland following chaotic start to Holyrood campaign, @NorstatUKPolls finds.
Constituency:
🟡 SNP 34 (-1 vs Feb)
🔴 Lab 19 (+2)
➡️ Ref 15 (-4)
🔵 Con 11 (+1)
🟠 LibDem 10 (+2)
🟢 Green 8 (=)
— Dan Sanderson (@DSanderson_85) April 4, 2026
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Anti-campaigning

Diving deeper into the polls, the Times’ Dan Sanderson noted:

Despite the SNP vote largely holding up, Reform’s loss of support is “bad news” for the nationalists, says Sir John Curtice.
His seat projections:
🟡 SNP 57 (-7 vs 2021)
🔴 Lab 20 (-2)
➡️ Ref 16 (+16)
🟢 Green 13 (+5)
🔵 Con 12 (-19)
🟠 LibDem 11 (+7)
Write up and analysis ⬇️
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— Dan Sanderson (@DSanderson_85) April 4, 2026

As he further reported, Reform’s polling is at its lowest level in over a year. This is a bad situation for Reform considering they’re in the runup to elections. With five weeks left, too, things could still get worse.

Sanderson added:

Lord Offord of Garvel, anointed by Farage as Reform UK’s Scottish leader in January, has made a succession of gaffes and faced intense scrutiny for a racist and homophobic joke he told at a rugby club dinner in 2018. He has since apologised for the joke, saying he “accepts accountability”.

We reported on lord Offal of Garble in December 2025, noting it was Boris Johnson who made him a peer. In other words, he’s yet another one of the Tory rejects Reform has accepted in the past 12 months.

In a piece about Reform UK suspending Scottish candidates, Skwawkbox wrote the following for the Canary on 21 March:

Hilariously, Reform’s Scottish head Malcolm Offord just boasted to the BBC’s Radio Scotland about how much time the party had spent vetting candidates and claimed all they had found was instances of candidates saying “something fruity in the past”.

Reform have lost more Scottish candidates since then too:

5 candidates have quit, the Reform UK Scottish launch was a mess, Tory candidate saturation, the manifesto sums don’t add up, the homophobic joke, the recycled dodgy campaign poster…
Malcolm Offord is a failure.#OffordMustGo pic.twitter.com/YmVQpYj98T
— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) April 3, 2026
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Regarding Reform UK’s local election woes, we’ve additionally reported the following:

Reform UK — Nationwide slide

Earlier today, we reported that the Greens had drawn level with Reform in one national poll. Since then, Stats for Lefties have shown that the Greens were actually slightly ahead:

‼️BREAKING | Greens surge into LEAD (1st!!)
🟢 Grn: 21.4% (+2.1)
➡️ Ref: 20.9% (-1.4)
🔵 Con: 20.5% (+0.2)
🔴 Lab: 17.0% (-0.4)
🟠 Lib: 9.2% (-1.9)
Poll: @LordAPolls, 26-30 Mar (+/- vs 19-23 Feb) pic.twitter.com/oDVw4cDaFC
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— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) April 5, 2026

As Novara’s Aaron Bastani highlighted, this is historic:

The first time in British history that the Greens have topped a national poll for Westminster.
Despite whatever talking points you’ll hear in legacy media my sense is they are gently nibbling into people who were considering Reform.

With five weeks left until the local elections, the Greens look increasingly well positioned to upset Reform’s predicted upset:

‼️NEW | Projected seat change in local elections:
➡️ Ref +2,260
🟢 Grn +450
🟠 Lib +200
🔵 Con -1,010
🔴 Lab -1,900
(Source: Stephen Fisher / @ElectionsEtc) pic.twitter.com/pkPixJ3Ont
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) March 30, 2026

Featured image via Pixabay (via Canva)

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Labour ‘s disgraced minister blames scandal on being ’30 years old’

Published

12 hours ago

5 April 2026

NewsAdmin

Labour 's disgraced minister blames scandal on being '30 years old'

Josh Simons is Labour’s ex-minister who was forced to resign from government. The scandal which led to his downfall revolved around Simons having private investigators look into journalists for the crime of doing journalism.

And while that sounds bad, have you considered that Simons may have been a tender, wee boy of just 30 when he did it?

sorry what? pic.twitter.com/hz1572zb97
— ollie cole (@ProducerOllie) April 5, 2026

Making of a scandal

We were reporting on Simons dubious activities back in September 2025. The following came from investigative journalist Paul Holden who wrote The Fraud – an exposé on Keir Starmer and Labour Together:

Paul Holden said he had been “pretty damn scared” when he found out that Labour Together had “set the hounds on me”. McSweeney is a chief architect of the antisemitism scam against Jeremy Corbyn and attempts to destroy the Canary.
Holden also claims that former Labour Together director Josh Simons, now a Cabinet Office Minister, was at the least aware of the group’s decision to set the investigators onto him, telling the Mail that:
“It was all very worrying. I was told these private detectives were looking into me, my family and my colleagues – all at the request of Labour Together.
“I could only assume they were digging dirt to discredit me or my research. The investigators were trying to find out how I was getting all my information – not challenge its accuracy.”

The Labour Together spying story wouldn’t become a national scandal until it was revealed they also spied on mainstream journalists – namely those at the Times.

Reporting on Simons resignation, Skwawkbox wrote the following for the Canary on 28 February:

From 2022 to 2024, Simons ran the sabotage outfit, Labour Togther. He took over after disgraced Morgan McSweeney moved on to become Keir Starmer’s (now former) chief of staff. However, Simons has not resigned his parliamentary seat.
All too typically, the resignation letter is full of self-exoneration and excuses. Instead of taking responsibility, the letter leans on Simons’s supposed vindication by Sir Laurie Magnus. Magnus is the supposedly ‘independent’ adviser on ministerial standards. This is farcical, when Simons’s own leaked WhatsApp messages revealed that Starmer had told Magnus to conduct only a fast (i.e cursory) investigation.
With a complete failure of self-awareness, Simons frames his departure in terms of the public’s justified low trust in politicians. And, like any good Israel apologist, he had to slip in a spurious reference to so-called ‘Labour antisemitism’ to smear the diligent, professional, independent authors, and journalists who exposed Labour Together.

It was far from the only time Simons blamed his mistakes on alleged antisemitism:

Again, this is not the first time Simons has lied about antisemitism being the reason he’s behaved badly. https://t.co/Zwbtb5WXEV pic.twitter.com/0srZhnLAno
— Rivkah Brown (@rivkahbrown) March 30, 2026

Obviously receiving diminishing returns from the antisemitism card, Simons is now blaming his mistakes on his age.

Disgraced Labour minister — A boy of just 30

The post at the top about Simons being a mere 30 years old is from Times Radio producer Ollie Cole. Seemingly, the text hasn’t been published online yet, because a verbatim google search produces no results.

It reads in full:

Former labour minister Josh Simons has told Times Radio that “I was 30 years old, I didn’t read the contract very carefully,” when asked about commissioning a report into the background of two Sunday Times journalists while working for Labour Together.

Ah yes, the famous stereotype about 30-year-olds being unable to read somewhat complicated documents.

A year later – when Simons was 31 – he would be in government and deciding on legislation. Presumably, at some point between 30 and 31, the text-understanding cortex of his brain developed, and he was able to read important documents as needed.

It really is farcical, isn’t it?

Featured image via Amazon

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