Rupert Grint’s announcement that he’s returning to the world of Harry Potter has received a mixed response among fans.

On Tuesday afternoon, the British actor announced that he’d be reprising his role as Ron Weasley in the Broadway production of the play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, which is set two decades after the events of the final book in the wizarding novel series.

“Ron Weasley has been a part of me since I was 11 years old and I can’t wait to meet him again in this stage of life,” he said in a statement.

“There is something so full-circle and so special about stepping back into Ron’s shoes now when we are both fathers; it is somehow both very familiar and completely new. And the joy of being back on Broadway, this time in a role that defined so much of my life, is truly exciting.”

He added: “The first time I saw Cursed Child onstage, I was blown away and I can’t wait to set foot back on platform 9¾ and pick up where I left off. I am overjoyed to join this exceptional cast and crew at the Lyric Theatre this winter.”

Rupert will appear in a “limited” run beginning in February 2027, according to a post on the Broadway production’s socials.

Shortly after the announcement, though, many voiced their disappointment at Rupert’s return to the franchise, given the ongoing controversy surrounding its creator, JK Rowling.

In recent years, Rowling has become an increasingly divisive figure thanks to comments about, and actions relating to, the transgender community.

This has included – but is not limited to – repeatedly and intentionally misgendering transgender public figures, and tens of thousands of pounds to the campaign group which raised the initial legal challenge that led to the UK Supreme Court’s ruling last year that the legal definition of a woman should include only those who were assigned female at birth.

After the ruling was made, she posted a celebratory picture on X, depicting herself smoking a cigar on a yacht.

Because of this, Rupert’s involvement in the play has already sparked discourse on social media:

Rupert has previously distanced himself from the author’s views on the trans community.

“I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers,” he said in 2020. “Trans women are women. Trans men are men.”

He added: “We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.”

Years later, he compared the writer to “an auntie” he doesn’t “necessarily agree with”.

“But she’s still my auntie,” he added at the time.

Six months after starting a real war he cannot figure out how to get out of, President Donald Trump has started another, potentially equally disastrous conflict: a trade war with America’s neighbour and second-largest partner.

And just as Iran is showing little interest in helping Trump out of his bind by agreeing to a face-saving deal that would let him claim victory, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is uninterested in letting Trump back away from the fight he began within weeks of returning to office.

Indeed, when Trump declared that he would impose even more tariffs on Canadian goods starting in January – two months after the midterm elections – Carney upped the ante and said no: His retaliatory tariffs would begin the day after Labor Day, the traditional start of the fall election campaign season.

“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Carney said in a weekend press conference explaining why he broke off trade negotiations.

He then said out loud what many US allies have believed for two years: that the United States under Trump is no longer a trustworthy partner. “We recognise that sometimes its signature was written in pencil.”

Trump’s new tariffs on a hodgepodge of goods from Canada will raise prices for US consumers even further in the run-up to the November elections, while Canadian tariffs will hurt US exporters who count on that business. Trump has also upped his volume of insults against Canada, claiming, for example, that he will rename Lake Ontario as Lake America.

Scott Lincicome, a trade analyst at the Cato Institute, said Trump chose to tangle with someone whose country is fully behind him.

“He’s a smart guy and it helps a lot that Canadians overwhelmingly hate Trump and will endure significant trade war pain to fight him,” he said.

Carney is not the first leader to say no to Trump. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has rejected Trump’s demand to let him use US troops against suspected drug dealers in Mexico, criticised the weapons pipeline that sees high-powered guns enter her nation illegally from the US and stood up for Cuba as Trump effectively imposed a blockade — but has done these things relatively quietly.

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen has similarly refused to countenance Trump’s demand that her nation turn over Greenland.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni essentially called Trump a liar when he claimed she had begged to be photographed with him, while French president Emmanuel Macron chastised Trump for constantly saying contradictory things about Iran, even advising him to remain silent once in a while.

Carney ― whose doctorate in economics and former directorship at two central banks stand in stark contrast with Trump’s casino-bankrupting history in business ― is the first leader of a close ally to confront Trump head-on in a major dispute.

At that press conference, he pointed out a fact that has gotten glossed over in virtually all discussion of Trump’s tariffs against Canada since he retook office: they violate the 2020 congressionally-approved free trade update that Trump continually boasted about at the time.

“That’s the thing: We have a deal with the Americans. It’s called CUSMA,” he said, referring to what the US calls the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, essentially a renaming of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

“We have side letters that clarify behaviour in steel, in aluminum, in autos. All of those are being violated, day in, day out.”

Trump does not, in his public comments, explain how Canada is cheating the United States under a trade agreement that he himself negotiated and signed. His White House press office said he is permitted under the agreement to impose tariffs on Canada to address emergencies and national security concerns, although it is unclear how Canada is causing either.

As with so many other things, Trump’s decision to act against Canada is rooted in his profound ignorance, in this case his longstanding inability to understand how international trade works.

For decades, Trump has claimed, falsely, that countries that sell more products to the United States than buy from the US are “ripping off” Americans. He further conflates trade deficits with the US budget deficit.

Trump’s first-term national security adviser, John Bolton, who, like many of Trump’s critics, has been criminally prosecuted by Trump’s Department of Justice, said the true workings of trade and tariffs were explained to Trump by experts in his own administration. “Many times,” he said.

Trump nevertheless repeated his falsehood again on Wednesday in a podcast appearance.

“We lose $60 billion a year, and really more than that, $60 billion a year with Canada,” he told former Fox News host Glenn Beck.

That view ignores the reality that Americans use and benefit from lumber, aluminium, maple syrup and other products they pay for. The trade imbalance, according to economists, is as meaningful as a typical family’s “trade deficit” each year with their neighbourhood grocery store.

Carney, in his news conference, told reporters that even by that metric, Trump is wrong because he fails to include services provided to Canadians by US companies that generate a net trade surplus for the United States. He further pointed out that much of the imports coming from Canada are natural gas, electricity and the heavy crude needed by many Texas refineries.

“I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy,” he said.

That Carney has emerged as Trump’s biggest antagonist among traditional allies is perhaps unsurprising, given that his Liberal Party unexpectedly retained power in 2025 thanks to anti-Trump backlash among the Canadian populace after he returned to office and began talking about annexing Canada as the 51st state.

Carney provided a hint of where he stood in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, early this year.

“If great powers abandon even the pretense of rules and values for the unhindered pursuit of their power and interests, the gains from transactionalism will become harder to replicate,” he warned, clearly referring to the United States without ever mentioning Trump by name. “Hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships.”

The end result of Trump’s tariff attacks and Carney’s retaliation is that residents in both countries will suffer, Bolton said.

“This is just going to hurt both economies. Trump raises taxes on Americans and Carney retaliates by raising taxes on Canadians,” he said.

President Donald Trump reacted to news of Dolly Parton’s death by claiming that the country music icon secretly “really liked me” and that her death feels like losing “a member of the family.”

“I knew her a little bit, she wasn’t a very political person,” he said in an interview with Glenn Beck on Wednesday, a day after the “Jolene” singer-songwriter’s death sent shockwaves around the world.

“She really liked me, I will tell you,” he went on, while claiming she never expressed this publicly because she didn’t want to lose some of her fanbase.

“She was of the opinion, the 50%, who needs to lose?” he said. “I don’t think it’s 50, I think it’s probably 20% of the fans, OK, not 50. But she was a great person, just a nice person. I liked her a lot.”

In her memory, Trump ordered the nation’s flags to be flown at half mast for one week, one of the longest periods of national mourning ever issued for a private citizen.

“There has never been anyone like her, and never will,” he proclaimed in a social media post.

Parton had refused to publicly wade into politics, including by sharing her feelings about Trump. The businesswoman and philanthropist reasoned she didn’t want to offend anyone and divide her fans. She’d instead let her music ― and actions ― speak for her, she said.

“I know whatever I say, people are going to listen, and they’re going to make more of it than maybe what I meant. So I have to be careful. Of course I have my opinion, but I’m not an opinionated person as a rule,” she told People in 2021.

Some of the issues she did address and supported included equality for the LGBTQ+ community, children’s education and literacy, and vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic — with her having helped fund Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The Trump administration, in contrast, has increasingly advocated against vaccinations, with Trump appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time anti-vaxxer, to oversee the nation’s health department, leading to a historic rise in measles cases and unsupported claims that the shots may be linked to autism.

Trump also revoked executive orders and actions that called for nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ individuals in federal agencies and in schools. His administration also carried out targeted campaigns against transgender individuals in schools, athletics and in the military.

“I think everybody should be treated with respect,” Dolly told CNN in 2016 when asked about a contentious anti-LGBTQ “Bathroom Bill” in North Carolina that imposed rules on bathroom and changing facilities based on one’s gender at birth.

“I don’t judge people. I try not to get too caught up in the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are. I just know if I have to pee, I’m going to pee. I don’t care where it’s going to be,” she went on.

That same year, before elected into his first term, Trump said he agreed with trans individuals being allowed to use the bathroom of their choice. After being sworn in, his administration ended federal protections for transgender students.

Nigel Farage could be blocked from ever becoming prime minister by the 43% of Brits “unhappy” with the idea of a Reform government, a survey has found.

The right-wing party is virtually neck-and-neck with Labour in the opinion polls, raising the prospect of Farage becoming prime minister at the next election.

But a report by anti-racism campaign group HOPE Not Hate has shown how tactical voting by nearly half the country could stop it from happening.

Based on polling by Focaldata, the report shows that there are more anti-Reform voters than supporters of the right-wing party.

Of the 43% who would be unhappy at Farage becoming PM, 69% would be prepared to vote tactically for whichever party is best-placed to stop a Reform candidate being elected in their constituency.

A constituency-level MRP projection by Survation found there are 95 “fragile Reform” seats across the country, where the party is three percentage points or less ahead of their nearest rival.

It also found there are 199 “anti-Reform jeopardy” seats where the party is currently projected to win only because opposition votes are split between two or more other parties.

Nick Lowles, chief executive at HOPE Not Hate, said: “Whether it’s the Burnham bounce or the Farage flop taking effect, Reform UK is doing worse in the polls now than they were last year.

“At the same time, millions of voters across Britain are ready to vote tactically against Reform.

“Even Reform enthusiasts like Tim Montgomerie are warning that Reform is only strong when its opposition is divided.

“Our research shows that Montgomerie is right to worry: Reform’s opposition can close ranks around election time.

“Our job is to guide anti-Reform voters to back a party that will deliver Reform defeat.”

Prominent Farage ally Tim Montgomerie was suspended from Reform last week after publicly criticising the party and its home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf.

A parliamentary sleaze probe is currently looking into Farage over a £5 million donation from a crypto-billionaire he failed to declare to parliament when he became an MP in 2024.

The Reform leader triggered a by-election in his constituency of Clacton earlier this year amid the heightened scrutiny over his finances.

However, all the other major parties refused to stand a candidate, describing the contest as a “stunt”, and Farage was re-elected.

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.

Wes Streeting has claimed “people cannot cope” with a gay man being defence secretary.

He said he had “experienced more online homophobia in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life”.

Streeting became the first openly gay man to be appointed to the role after Andy Burnham became prime minister last month.

In an interview with Iain Dale at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the former health secretary said he had been inundated with abuse since taking up the role.

He said: “I have experienced more online homophobia in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life.

“An unbelievable volume, because people cannot cope with the idea that a gay person might lead the armed forces of the United Kingdom.”

He said his sexuality “has been almost entirely unremarked upon in the media” since becoming defence secretary.

“I think, ‘great, here we are in the third decade of the 21st century it doesn’t matter, brilliant’,” Streeting said. “But of course online it matters to a lot of people.

“And I am proud of the fact that in my lifetime we’ve gone from gay people not being able to serve in the military to a gay defence secretary.”

However, Streeting said he had also been congratulated by people in the Ministry of Defence for being a symbol of progress.

He said: “In my first week, someone in the MoD said to me: ‘As a gay man, I’m really proud that we have our first gay defence secretary – It means a lot to many of us who remember the bad old days.’ I was quite touched by that.”

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.

It’s hard to overstate the benefits of frequent walks. While this form of exercise may not feel as impactful as a high-intensity workout or distance run, walking actually does wonders for the body.

“Physically it will improve cardiovascular health by strengthening the heart, thereby helping circulation, lower blood pressure, helping in the prevention of heart disease and stroke,” Matthew Nolan, a chief instructor at Barry’s in New York City, told HuffPost.

“Mental health is also a great benefit to walking. The release of the endorphins while walking will help boost mood and overall mental state,” he added.

What’s more, daily walking can help build bone and muscle strength and improve joint health, said Nolan. In fact, people with chronic lower back pain and knee pain can benefit from a regular walking regimen, said Tyler Moldoff, a physical therapist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

“It’s really been exciting more recently seeing a lot of new research coming out about how something as simple as walking can really be an exceptional exercise, when done properly,” he said.

To Moldoff, “done properly” means getting 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week. This equates to at least 30 minutes of walking, five days a week — and you should aim for 5,000 to 10,000 steps (or more) daily.

Once you hit these requirements, there are additional ways to get even more out of your exercise regimen. Below, experts share what you can do to challenge yourself while building up strength and endurance during your walks:

U.S. government guidelines note that adults need at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week, which can include brisk walking — but not walking at a snail’s pace.

Moldoff said the intensity of aerobic activity is typically measured in relation to your heart rate.

While it can be hard to know your exact heart rate during a walk, a good way to ensure you’re pushing yourself is to listen to a fast-paced song — starting at, say, 100 beats per minute — and then move to the music’s beat, Moldoff added.

“You can simply do a Google search or even on Spotify or Apple Music, look for different genres of songs that may be enjoyable for individuals at 100 beats per minute, and then trying to sync your cadence to the beat of the song,” he said.

“And if you’re following along [to a] song that is … 100 beats per minute, you can be sure that after a few minutes you’ll start to work up a little bit of a breath and you’ll be hitting that moderate intensity.”

If that tempo feels too slow for you, look up songs that are 110 or 120 beats per minute instead.

And as a bonus, music makes walking more enjoyable, Moldoff said.

If you’re not quite ready to maintain a fast walking pace for all 30-plus minutes of your walk, consider incorporating a faster pace at select times during your workout.

Nolan said that in Barry’s classes, instructors frequently do interval-based training, which you can try in your walk, too.

“You can do [this] at home by incorporating short bursts of fast walking or even jogging to increase intensity,” Nolan stated.

For example, you might start small with a 30-second jog or minute-long speed walk and increase the duration when your body feels ready.

“You could also walk with light weights or do some simple body weight exercises like squats, lunges or pushups during points of the walk to work different muscle groups,” Nolan said.

To start, simply plan your walk ahead of time and pick some designated places, such as your driveway or a local park, to do some body weight training. Writing out your workout in advance can also help you hold yourself accountable.

You might do five pushups, 15 crunches and a one-minute plank repeated three times, or whatever combination makes sense for you. Just be sure to switch up your strength workout to target different muscles in your exercise regimen.

You could also try walking with a weighted vest or a backpack filled with books for an added challenge, Moldoff said.

“Simply by doing that, you can help increase your metabolic rate, which improves your oxygen consumption, and that relates to a greater calorie burn,” he stated, adding that this can “strengthen the muscle groups of the leg.”

Walking on a path with hills is another way to boost your daily walk, Moldoff said.

Walking downhill has been shown to improve muscle strength in the lower extremities and reduce the stress that’s put on the cardiovascular system, he stated.

“So, interestingly enough, it will likely be less stressful on our breathing and our heart rate,” Moldoff noted. “It will make it more comfortable, but at the same time, you’re actually improving your muscle strength more effectively relative to simply level walking.”

Meanwhile, walking uphill can provide more of a challenge to your cardiovascular system, and some research suggests that it can benefit people with knee joint issues.

No matter what you do to up your walking regimen, it’s important to stay consistent, said Nolan.

“The benefits of walking are best realized with regular, consistent practice,” he said. “Aim for at least 30 minutes most days of the week.”

But it’s important to take days off when you need them and listen to your body for any signs of pain or discomfort, Nolan added.

It may take time to build up enough strength and endurance to incorporate these walking challenges, and that’s OK. As you commit to a regular walking regimen, the benefits will begin to emerge.

“Walking is a simple, accessible form of exercise that can truly open the door to a healthier lifestyle,” Nolan stated. “By incorporating these tips, you can maximize the benefits and enjoy daily walks even more.”

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

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Knee pain affects about a fifth of over-16s, and is more common the older we get.

Per the NHS, it can be caused by everything from strains and twists during exercise to conditions like osteoarthritis (knee osteoarthritis seems to be the most common form of the disease).

According to Dr Syed Nadeem Abbas, a surgeon and regenerative medicine expert from the Knee Pain Clinic, “most knee pain [among over-40s] comes down to wear and tear, and that’s still the most likely explanation.”

However, he says one type of knee pain should always be investigated.

“What tends to get missed is pain that doesn’t follow the usual rules, pain that’s worse at rest than at activity, or wakes someone up at night rather than settling,” the expert said.

“That’s the pattern I’d always want checked properly rather than put down to getting older, because catching anything unusual early makes a real difference to the outcome.”

Knee pain caused by osteoarthritis or overuse tends to ease off at rest, he added.

But issues that get worse at night might very rarely be caused by a bone tumour, he added – indeed the NHS said a possible symptom of bone cancer is if “pain or tenderness in a bone, particularly if it’s worse at night”.

Chondrosarcoma, the most common type of primary bone cancer, is known to affect adults over 40, the surgeon added.

Of course, these symptoms aren’t limited to your knee: common sites include the pelvis (hip), rib cage, arms, shoulder blades, and other parts of your leg.

It’s important to remember that primary bone cancer is very uncommon – about 550 people in the UK face it yearly.

Other conditions which can cause nighttime knee pain include:

• Rheumatoid arthritis,
• Gout,
• Tendonitis,
• Prepatellar bursitis,
• Osgood-Schlatter disease,
• Injury, per The Cleveland Clinic.

Dr Abbas added that even vitamin D deficiency might cause unexpected knee pain.

But as orthopaedic surgeon Dr Kim Stearns also told the clinic, “People with healthy knees usually don’t get pain at night. There’s typically a reason, and it can be caused by several conditions.”

Speak to your GP if you have concerns.

President Donald Trump posted a ranking of what he apparently believes are the greatest US presidents, and it’s no surprise where he ended up on the list.

The post, featuring portraits of 34 of the 45 individuals who have held the office, ranks them as “the greatest, great, near great, average, below average and failures.”

Trump, naturally, ranks himself as “the greatest” above such famed presidents as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson, all of whom were listed in the “great” category.’

Other presidents in that category included Woodrow Wilson and Andrew Jackson.

The “near great” category included Theodore Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, John Adams and James K. Polk.

The “average” category surprisingly included Bill Clinton, whom Trump has made a point of attacking over the years.

That category also included John Quincy Adams, James Monroe, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Madison, Martin Van Buren, William Howard Taft, Chester A. Arthur, William McKinley, Andrew Johnson, Herbert Hoover, and Benjamin Harrison.

The “below average” category included John Tyler, Calvin Coolidge, Millard Fillmore, Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan and Franklin Pierce.

To absolutely nobody’s surprise, Trump’s list dubbed Barack Obama and Joe Biden as “failures” along with Jimmy Carter, Ulysses S. Grant and Warren G. Harding.

The list excluded William Henry Harrison, James A. Garfield (both of whom died shortly after taking office), Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Trump had posted the list along with a video from CNN’s Harry Enten, highlighting a poll showing Trump is more admired by Republicans than Lincoln and Reagan.