While the secret at the centre of Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s new film The Drama was kept under wraps in the lead-up to the movie’s release, it’s already sparked controversy and backlash from some critics.

The Drama centres around a seemingly happy young couple gearing up for their wedding day, only to wind up questioning everything when an innocent drinking game leads to a revelation that causes them to unravel.

Days before its release, critics began having their say on the film, and true to form, response has been decidedly split right down the middle.

Some more impressed critics have lauded it with five- and four-star reviews, while others have suggested it falls short of expectations laid out by its trailer.

One thing both its fans and detractors and can agree on, though, is that The Drama makes for some seriously “uncomfortable”, “unnerving”, “cringe-out-loud” and, often, “feel-bad” viewing.

Here’s what critics are saying about the film so far…

“The wedding from hell is an enduring rom-com staple and dutifully deployed in everything from The Philadelphia Story to Four Weddings And A Funeral to Bride Wars. Yet a nuptial apocalypse has rarely been explored with such dark intelligence and mordant wit as in this often piercing and cringe-out-loud dramedy starring Robert Pattinson and Zendaya.”

“No other film this year will make you feel as uncomfortable as The Drama. Don’t miss out on it.

“It’s provocative and compulsively watchable – a rom-com that obliterates the very meaning of the word, by thrusting love under the psychoanalyst’s microscope and tearing laughter by force from its viewers’ throats.”

“[The Drama presents] a fascinating conundrum that sets off the fireworks in this darkly funny, yet explosively honest movie that may not be what you expect at all going in, but one that is bound to spark spirited conversation when you are walking out.”

“The drama of The Drama is visible in every uncomfortable stutter, every moment of avoided eye contact, every back turned instead of consolation offered. […] Zendaya and Pattinson both thrive in this environment, relishing the kind of dialogue exchanges you want to watch through your fingers […] As dark as it gets, it is often hilarious in that cruel, keen way that Borgli has proved to be a specialist.”

“The Drama has the spiky, ingenious, tasteless style of [director Kristoffer Borgli’s] previous film Dream Scenario, and both are superior to his unsubtle narcissism comedy Sick Of Myself.

“It offers us a provocation, a jeu d’ésprit of outrage, a psychological meltdown that is more astutely articulated than in many another more solemnly intended film. And it gives us what it promises in the title.”

“[The Drama promises] an edgy, provocative look at how a relationship might weather the intrusion of a distinctly American pathology. In disappointing reality, though, the film is merely a differently dressed rehash of very familiar material.

“It’s a deceptively simple dramedy of cold feet, of pre-wedding jitters, only given the stain of higher-minded, more piercing social inquiry.”

“Robert Pattinson and Zendaya redefine the modern American love story in a rom-com that’s almost as fucked up as America itself […] The Drama is, by design, too unsettled for clarity, let alone social instruction.”

“Borgli is a gifted filmmaker, but in The Drama he never stops jumping around – back in time, and also within scenes, all to hook us into a note of toxic anxiety.

“He succeeds, but the mix of tones is unnerving and, at times, a bit baffling. Are we supposed to be cracking up, or sucking in our breath as the hero’s sanity cracks?”

“The Drama promises bombshell revelations and the wedding from hell, but serves up a cramped, feel-bad, unromantic comedy with characters we don’t care about.”

“[The Drama] actually wants viewers to connect with its two stars. It hopes to humanise them as complex people meant for one another and to demonise those critical of them as self-righteous hypocrites. But what gives this glib, circuitous film the right to persecute the apathetic when it barely understands its own characters?”

Donald Trump’s decision to sack Pam Bondi as attorney general is one of the few he’s made as president that actually got some sort of bipartisan support.

In a statement on his Truth Social platform, the president praised Bondi as “a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” adding that she is being transitioned to “a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will be taking over Bondi’s job as acting attorney general, and he praised his former boss on social media, saying that she “led this Department with strength and conviction and I’m grateful for her leadership and friendship.”

Bondi also received support from former Congressman Matt Gaetz, who was briefly considered for the attorney general post before withdrawing after several Republican senators objected to his nomination on ethical grounds.

“Pam Bondi will be known as one of the great crime fighters of our time,” he posted on X. “She is a patriot who has all of our appreciation.”

Bondi made her own social media post after her firing was announced, saying, in part, that she remains “eternally grateful for the trust that President Trump placed in me to Make America Safe Again.”

However, most of the social media responses from politicians on both sides of the aisle expressed overwhelming support for Bondi’s canning, often in very harsh terms.

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer began his post with the words, “Good riddance.”

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries also went scorched earth against Bondi, calling her “a partisan, petulant, political hack.”

House Republicans also applauded Bondi getting booted, with South Carolina’s Nancy Mace griping about how the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files “seriously undermined President Trump.”

Other politicians chimed in to cheer Bondi’s removal as AG:

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung whined on social media after CNN host Abby Phillip called out President Donald Trump over the Iran war and his head-spinning foreign policy since he returned to office.

“Totally unhinged @abbydphillip of CNN has no sense at all,” Cheung wrote Wednesday on X.

His comments came minutes after the “CNN Newsnight” host responded to Republican ex-Representative Peter Meijer’s suggestion that the jump in oil prices in recent weeks is “so much less dramatic” than the administration’s expectations, and that Trump’s low polling numbers would still be similar even if Iran capitulated on Day 1.

“But don’t you think Americans are rational about paying a dollar more per gallon at the gas [pump]?” Phillip asked.

She went on: “I think they’re saying very clearly they do not think that this step needed to be taken.”

Phillip’s show aired not long after Trump wrapped up his prime-time address on the war, and she noted that the president’s speech lacked “new insights” on his administration’s objectives.

“The president basically repeated a lot of the things that he’s been saying in Truth Social posts, except he said it out loud,” the host said.

She later teed up a discussion on Trump’s insistence that America’s allies in Europe clean up his mess in the Strait of Hormuz, despite the president not consulting Nato before diving headfirst into the conflict in late February.

She proceeded to argue that Trump threw Nato’s future into question by not asking Denmark to expand US access to military bases in Greenland before threatening to annex the semi-autonomous Arctic territory, escalating an international crisis late last year.

That’s around the time when Cheung made his post on X.

“Complete lightweight who has no idea what she is talking about on foreign policy,” he continued. “It’s now clear why her ratings are in the shitter.” (“CNN NewsNight” was the network’s top show in the adult 25-54 demographic in February, per Nielsen data reported by Adweek.)

Cheung’s latest meltdown on X joins several more of his gripes and grievances over the past year.

We’ve all seen it: the person at the airport gate loudly telling their boss their Wi-Fi isn’t strong enough for video calls, clearly pretending to be stuck at home. Or that friend who, between bottomless mimosas at brunch, is furiously tapping out Slack messages.

Welcome to the modern vacation: gate-checked by remote work.

Thanks to flexible schedules and “work-from-anywhere” policies, we technically can work from anywhere — even while on vacation. And yet that freedom has become a trap. Why bother using PTO when you can save it and fire off emails from a New York hotel room or an Airbnb on a bachelorette weekend?

The result: We’re traveling more than ever, but actually vacationing less than before.

Between lagging Wi-Fi, comped breakfast buffets with unanswered Slack threads, and the ever-present fear of looking unproductive, we’re realizing that something has to change. Welcome to 2026, the year we all start “deadzoning.”

Despite catching flights, not feelings, we’re all exhausted, because we’re blending business and pleasure a little too seamlessly. We’re permanently switched on: curating the perfect Instagram carousel, tracking breaking news alerts, fielding a relentless stream of group chat messages. “Deadzoning” is the antidote, the art of switching off and traveling in intentional silence.

“Deadzoning reflects a broader cultural shift away from constant connectivity and burnout,” Christina Bennett, a consumer travel trends expert at Priceline, told HuffPost. “After years of being ‘always on,’ travellers are actively seeking vacations that allow them to fully disconnect — mentally and digitally.”

“It’s especially resonating with Gen Z and millennials, who are increasingly prioritising mental health and presence over productivity,” she continues. “In fact, more than a third say they wish devices could be banned entirely while on vacation. At its core, deadzoning is about reclaiming time, focus, and real rest by choosing trips to destinations that force you to unplug and reset.”

As always, it’s easier said than done. We all want to put our phones away… and yet somehow end up clocking 14 hours of screen time a day. Are we even awake for that long in a day?

My first real experience of “deadzoning” came post-breakup, as most breakthroughs do. I got dumped over text by someone who had recently told me he loved me (bold), and I felt the familiar urge to download every dating app going just to reaffirm my value. Instead, I booked a tiny cabin, borrowed my sister’s dog and disappeared off-grid.

I didn’t switch my phone off entirely — I was a single woman traveling alone, and my family was already convinced I was spiralling — but I did turn off the internet. The only thing I allowed myself was one daily text to my sister, confirming that her dog and I were very much alive. It was glorious. Within hours, the phantom urge to check my phone evaporated. No refreshing inboxes. No stalking his Instagram followers. Just trees, silence and a dog who couldn’t care less about my attachment issues.

“Travelers can set better work-life boundaries by being intentional before the trip starts,” Bennett said. “That includes setting a clear out-of-office message, delegating responsibilities in advance, and being upfront about limited availability. Destination choice matters, too — places like mountain towns, national park gateways, and quiet coastal escapes make it easier to step away from screens.”

Now, you don’t have to disappear to a tiny cabin with only a dog for company — though I highly recommend it. Entire businesses have been built around the art of switching off. One such brand is Unplugged, which specialises in off-grid cabin stays designed specifically for digital detoxing.

“Unplugged cabins are entirely off-grid and have no phones, Wi-Fi, or technology, and they provide all the offline essentials such as a phone lockbox, books, a physical map and an instant camera,” Unplugged co-founder Hector Hughes told HuffPost. “It’s much easier to be without your phone and laptop when the space is intentionally built for that purpose.”

In other words: If temptation isn’t there, you can’t give in to it.

“Booking a remote location in nature where the signal is naturally low is also a great choice,” Hughes continues. “There is no Wi-Fi or 5G in the mountains, so you are physically unable to check your phone.”

And it’s not just about going off-grid, it’s about choosing the right kind of environment. Alex Oldfield, co-founder of Curated Spaces — the world’s first booking platform powered by tastemakers — also shared a few guiding principles for planning the ultimate “deadzoning” escape:

• Places with permission to slow down.
  Rural farm stays, remote cottages, coastal hideaways, cabins in the woods. Anywhere the pace of life is naturally gentle.
• Design-led spaces that encourage presence.
  Homes with big windows, long communal tables, outdoor baths, and crackling fireplaces. When a space feels good to inhabit, you stop reaching for distraction.
• Experiential rather than itinerary-heavy trips.
  The best “deadzoning” trips revolve around simple, tactile pleasures: swimming in the sea before breakfast, foraging walks, garden grazing, star-filled evenings, meals that stretch lazily into the afternoon.
• Somewhere slightly out of reach.
  A winding country road, a ferry crossing, a slow train journey — just enough distance to create a psychological gap between everyday life and vacation time.

Because ultimately, deadzoning isn’t about punishment or proving you can survive without your phone. It’s about engineering a break that feels genuinely different from your normal life, one where the silence isn’t awkward, it’s restorative.

My personal recommendation? Get dumped over text by a man who once said he loved you and borrow — or gently steal — someone’s dog for a few nights. Highly effective. Questionable scalability.

For those seeking something slightly less niche, here are expert-backed ways to engineer the perfect “deadzoning” vacation:

“If you can, lock your phone away so distraction is not an option,” recommends Hector Hughes.

You can even take a more inexpensive, less-addictive “replacement dumb-phone out with you” for emergencies, he suggested.

Many of us can’t go fully off-grid. Safety, family, work — life still exists.

Hughes acknowledged this: “If you can’t lock your phone away, turn off all email and social media notifications or put your phone on Do Not Disturb or airplane mode. Put it in your bag (not your pocket) so you don’t feel the urge to pick it up out of habit.”

“Leave a rock-solid handover so nothing’s hanging over you, and tell people you’ll be offline (bonus points if your destination truly has no signal),” Oldfield said. “Don’t do the ‘feel free to ping me if anything comes up’ line — we’ve all said it, and we all regret it. Boundaries are completely fine, as long as you’re clear upfront and leave no room for confusion.”

Think of it like telling your partner you’re going to that 6 a.m. spin class. The second someone knows about it, you’re suddenly far more committed to following through.

“Switching off is way easier when the place itself helps you shake off your usual rhythm,” Oldfield said. “Maybe it’s a cabin surrounded by fields with no signal, a coastal cottage where you can live the fisherman aesthetic IRL, or a hotel where you can disappear into the spa and order room service after. It starts with choosing somewhere that makes slowing down feel natural.”

Environment is everything: You are far less likely to check Slack while staring at sheep.

“Bring that book you’ve been meaning to read,” Oldfield suggested. “Cook something from an old recipe book, go for a long hike, play cards by the fire. Go for a mooch in the local town, get a little lost and ask for directions, shriek your way into a cold wild swim, write a letter. If you feel like you’re in a Jane Austen novel, you’re doing it right.”

Because at its core, deadzoning isn’t about rejecting modern life. It’s about remembering that we’re allowed to step away from it, even briefly, without the world collapsing in our absence.

Labour is heading for “a total bloodbath” in the elections on May 7, according to a polling expert.

Voters will go to the polls in England, Scotland and Wales for the biggest test of public opinion since Keir Starmer won a landslide general election victory less than two years ago.

Since then, however, Labour and the prime minister’s popularity has plummeted following a series of gaffes, ministerial resignations, controversies and scandals.

Ben Walker, co-founder of polling analysts Britain Elects and a Labour councillor, said May 7 is shaping up to be disastrous for his party as well as the Conservatives.

In a post on X, he said: “Putting together the English local election forecast. Scotland and Wales done.

“I have to say, and not to give a sneak peak, but to affirm what’s been written elsewhere: this May is going to be absolutely terrible for the Tories. But a total bloodbath for Labour.”

Labour is facing defeat once again to the SNP in the Scottish Parliament elections, and could even come third behind Reform UK.

The party is also set to lose power in the Welsh Senedd for the first time since it was set up in 1999, with Plaid Cymru on course to form the next government.

Around 5,000 council seats are up for election on the same day, with analysis by the Financial Times last month suggesting Labour could lose nearly 2,000 as Reform and the Greens make major gains.

A by-election held on Thursday for a seat on Rossendale Borough Council provided a foretaste of what Labour can expect on May 7.

The party’s vote share plunged by nearly 28% as they lost the seat to the Greens.

Meanwhile, Reform polled 34.5% from a standing start, 15 points more than Labour.

The more I learn about the health benefits of walking, the more I understand why the NHS calls the exercise “overlooked”.

Walking as few as 2,337 steps a day can reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke, while a 1.6km stroll is linked to denser bones.

It can help your sleep, joints, and immune system, and may even lower your cravings for sweet foods. Walking for half an hour daily may add 1.4 years to women’s lives, and 2.5 to men’s.

But if you want to make a great thing even better for you, it turns out there are some simple changes – like bringing a friend on your walk, or taking a hilly route – that could be worth your while.

All walking is good for us. But in one study, brisk walking was linked to a 20% reduction in premature death compared to just 4% for slower walkers.

The NHS said that we should aim for a 4.8km/hour pace. Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, Dr Hussain Ahmad said brisk walking “means you’re walking fast enough to feel warmer and breathe a bit harder, but [are] still able to hold a conversation”.

“Incline walking,” or walking on a slope, seems to engage more muscles and raise heart rates higher than walking on a flat surface.

Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, GP Dr Suzanne Wylie said: “For many people, especially those who are new to exercise, carrying excess weight, managing joint pain or recovering from injury, incline walking can provide meaningful cardiovascular benefit and muscle engagement.”

Even downhill walking may benefit us, especially as we age.

Speaking to the University of Oxford, Dr Arran Davis said that fatigue is much more determined by how we feel than by the actual condition of our muscles.

Social support helps to reduce and delay that perceived fatigue, helping us to push ourselves for longer. The effect is so strong that even seeing a photo of a supportive friend makes us feel less tired.

10,000 steps a day is a marketing tool – scientists have since found that around 7,000 paces daily is enough to lower your risk of all-cause mortality by 47%.

But “Japanese walking,” a type of interval walking that involves walking for three minutes at a fast pace and then slowly for another three minutes until you reach a half-hour walking, may be one of the most beneficial ways to reach that goal.

A 2007 paper found that among middle-aged participants, people who followed that pattern enjoyed lower blood pressure, stronger thigh muscles, and better aerobic ability than those who walked 8,000 steps a day at a steady pace.

The NHS recommends getting 20-30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, like walking, a day.

A 2023 review found that “Meeting current physical activity guidelines by walking briskly for 30 min per day for 5 days can reduce the risk of several age-associated diseases”; in post-menopausal women, for instance, half an hour’s walk a day was linked to a 40% lower risk of hip fracture.

Of course, until about 9,800 steps a day – when health benefits max out – more walking is generally better. But the NHS points out that “a brisk 10-minute daily walk has lots of health benefits,” and a recent study found that 4.5 minutes extra movement a day can reduce your heart attack risk.

Nigel Farage has wrongly claimed that a senior Reform UK official sacked for offensive comments about the Grenfell tragedy was only in his post for two weeks.

Simon Dudley was dumped by Farage as the party’s housing spokesman following a furious backlash to his remarks.

A major overhaul of building regulations took place after 72 people were killed in Grenfell Tower in west London in 2017.

But in an interview with trade publication Inside Housing, Dudley said the pendulum had “swung too far the wrong way”.

He said the Grenfell fire was a “tragedy” but added: “Sadly, you know, everyone dies in the end. It’s just how you go, right?”

Farage announced his sacking during a press conference on Thursday.

He said: “He’s no longer a spokesman for the party. That has been dealt with.”

In a bad-tempered interview afterwards with Sky News, Farage said: “He was appointed two weeks ago, he’s made these comments, he’s no longer there.”

But Reform actually announced Dudley had been handed the role on March 10.

In a press release, deputy leader Richard Tice said: “He understands planning, finance and regeneration. He knows how to get projects moving. That is exactly what we need. ”

Elsewhere in his Sky News interview, Farage tried to shift the blame for the row onto Tice.

He said: “I met [Dudley] once for two minutes, I don’t know the guy. Richard’s in charge of development, housing, economics. He thought he was the right person to put in place because of his considerable expertise in the area. That’s undoubted.

“But whether you’ve got expertise and media skills, where you’re not going to say something that trips yourself up, they’re different.”

Nearly 24 hours on from Farage announcing Dudley’s sacking, Tice has yet to publicly comment.

It’s amazing how much of everyday life I didn’t question for years – like what “wi-fi” really means, where we get paprika from, and what ASDA actually stands for.

And opening my fridge this afternoon, another banal mystery confronted me. What’s that squidgy black mat at the bottom of raspberry trays for, and why isn’t it in the bottom of my strawberry tray?

It seems I’m not alone. Posting to r/NoStupidQuestions, Redditor u/GrumpyOldSophon asked about the addition, wondering why you “never find this in packages of blueberries or strawberries”.

It probably won’t shock you to learn that the sheet is there to absorb some moisture. Packaging specialists Packaging World described these sheets as “dual ply absorbent” material, “applied to a totally absorbent, yet sealed, topcoat”.

They’re designed for softer fruits, like raspberries and blueberries, as these aren’t as hardy as, e.g., strawberries or grapes. Speaking to Eating Well, Robert Schueller, a produce expert at Melissa’s Produce, said: “A raspberry is one of the most delicate fruits out there, so they have to be packaged very carefully”.

They provide some cushioning for the delicate fruits as they’re transported, too. And because they wick away moisture, they can help to prevent mould.

It makes sense for it to be black or red as it’s designed to catch berry juices, which would otherwise stain it.

Though there may be another, unexpected benefit here: pitching their black cartonboard packaging for strawberries, MM Karton said: “The contrast of black cartonboard and red strawberries is a real eye-catcher at the point of sale”.

Perhaps the red berry/black sheet colour combo makes our raspberries look more inviting, too.

I have enjoyed many a mega-size box of strawberries this year.

But it turns out retailers aren’t being stingy for limiting their raspberry carton sizes; the berries are too delicate to be stacked on top of each other, unlike strawberries and even blueberries.

And, Schueller added, “you need to allow space for air in each package, too”.