The Greens have defended a by-election campaign video in which Zack Polanski speaks in Urdu after a cabinet member said it made him feel “uncomfortable”.

In a post on social media, the party leader introduced himself and encouraged voters to back him in Holborn and St Pancras on October 8.

But business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said all voters should be able to understand what candidates say.

He told Times Radio that his views “have hardened” on the need for campaign literature to be in English.

“I think it’s very important, when you think about cohesion, to make sure that everyone can participate in an election,” he said.

Tory shadow communities secretary Katie Lam went even further by describing Polanski’s video as “poisonous” and should be banned.

She said: “Attempting to appeal to group-based grievances by campaigning in foreign languages is poisonous.

“We must ban this practice for good. Politics in our country should be conducted in the language of public life.”

But a Green Party spokesman defended the video, telling HuffPost UK: “The Greens believe that democracy doesn’t discriminate by languages spoken. Many people are bilingual.

“Holborn and St Pancras is a true reflection of the diversity of London and of our country and we choose to embrace and celebrate that.

“If we want to speak to people who speak Urdu, it makes sense to speak to them in Urdu. We’re proud to reach voters in as many languages as possible”

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Hacks star Megan Stalter definitely made a big impression on this year’s Emmy Awards red carpet with her larger-than-life look.

The actor and comedian, who is currently appearing in Oh Mary! On Broadway, was pictured arriving at Monday night’s ceremony dressed as the awards statuette itself.

Megan covered herself head-to-toe in gold paint for the occasion, completing her ensemble with a gold crop top and shorts, painted gold wings and an oversized golden atom, mimicking the iconic Emmys trophy.

She was seen striking a pose on the red carpet with her Hacks co-star Paul W. Downs, rolling her prop around the red carpet and holding it above her head.

“I went as Paul’s Emmy – as he deserves,” she joked to Variety on the red carpet. “And my own – as I deserve!”

When asked about the inspiration behind her look, Megan joked to NBC: “I just got off a plane and we threw something together real fast.”

Megan, of course, has a history of wearing bold outfits on the red carpet.

Perhaps most notably, she and Paul parodied Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner’s orange matching red carpet looks at the Critics Choice Awards earlier this year.

At last year’s Emmys, meanwhile, she went against the formal dress code by wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt and a black bag emblazoned with the message: “Ceasefire!”

In April, Megan opened up to Marie Claire about why she likes to make bold statements on the red carpet.

“Every red carpet appearance or anything that I get to do in front of people, I want to have fun and make the most of it because it’s my dream,” she explained. “We worked really hard to get here, and now I want to enjoy it.”

Megan was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy at this year’s Emmys, for her role as hapless assistant Kayla in the fifth and last series of Hacks.

Kate O’Flynn ultimately won the award for her role as Patricia in Widow’s Bay.

The next few years could see the online world transform dramatically for young people.

Changes are already trickling through. Smartphones have now been banned in schools in England, while the UK government is considering how it will implement next year’s social media ban for under-16s.

Meanwhile, the Crime and Policing Bill 2025 aims to ultimately make ‘nudification’ tools – which can digitally undress people using artificial intelligence (AI) – illegal.

‘Cyber cop’ Susan McLean is one of the experts who is watching the UK’s movements in this space with great interest. A former Victoria police officer of 27 years, who now advises governments, schools and families on online child safety, she knows her stuff about modern technology and the impact it can have on kids today. (Through her work in schools alone, she speaks to roughly 250,000 children about the topic every year.)

In an interview with HuffPost UK to mark her new book, Growing Up Digital, which landed in UK bookstores this month, McLean shared one of her biggest areas of concern as far as children and tech are concerned: the rise in ‘sextortion’ (or sexual extortion) cases among boys.

Earlier this year, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) warned child sextortion cases in the UK have soared by 72% in the space of a year. Criminals are tricking young people into sending nude or sexual images of themselves which are then used to blackmail them. In 97% of cases, the victims are boys.

“Probably the biggest risk to an adolescent male is sextortion and sexual blackmail – that is hideous,” said McLean, who described how organised criminal gangs sit in call centres, work a script, “and are very good at what they do”.

The online safety specialist recalled being on holiday in Europe a couple of weeks ago and seeing her phone screen flash up – an unknown Australian number was calling.

“I answered it and it was a 17-year-old boy in tears,” she said. “I’d spoken at his school, and he was now being sextorted online. He remembered my talk and he remembered I said I would be helpful if he needed me – and he decided to ring me.”

The expert noted she asked him to include another adult in their discussion while she advised on what to do next.

“That’s the thing,” she continued, discussing how the boy called her instead of someone close to him, “we know there’s underreporting of this crime, there’s shame attached to it, most kids will pay two amounts of money before they tell an adult and certainly we know that young men have taken their own lives.”

The mental health repercussions attached to this crime can be great. Studies have flagged a “statistically significant relationship” between experience with sextortion and suicidality.

McLean described how someone diagnosed with poor mental health might see a progression over a period of time, which would ultimately lead to them seeking help. But with sextortion, “what I’ve seen far too often, is that they have gone from a 100% mentally well young person into someone in psychological crisis in a matter of hours”.

She continued: “They will have been told [by criminals] that their life is over, they will have been told that they’ll never recover from this, they will have been told that they will be ruined – and, in the moment, kids believe that.”

McLean is keen for parents to educate themselves on the current technology kids are using, so they can then educate their kids about it.

She also highlights the importance of keeping the channels of communication open as soon as children are using devices. “I always say: talk early, talk often. The minute your child has a device, you need a conversation,” she advised.

These conversations should always be age-appropriate, of course. You’re not going to talk to a four-year-old about sextortion.

But you could start by having conversations around taking photos. If your child wants to send a photo to Grandma, for instance, you can discuss why they should always take a photo with their clothes on. And why it’s important to ask a parent first, before sending a photo to someone on a phone or computer – and why we only ever send photos to trusted grown-ups.

As children reach their tweens, the expert suggested the key message should be along the lines of: “Nothing is so bad that you can’t come and tell me about it. I don’t care what you’ve done, I don’t care what has happened … If something is bothering you, worrying you, you’re being threatened online, you’ve seen something that is not right, please come and tell me about it and we’ll work it through together.”

She added: “We know that a parent’s first response when they’re told something will often dictate to that young person whether they’re going to disclose more.”

Her sentiment echoes that of Australian coroner Audrey Jamieson who, back in 2022, said a shift in the way young people are taught about online safety could prevent suicide among sextortion victims.

Following the suicide of Rohan Cosgriff, who was 17 and had been the victim of a sextortion scam, she said: “The fact remains that with all the education in the world, and no matter how many times the message ‘don’t send intimate images’ is repeated, young people will continue to do these things.

“The conversation must turn to: should you find yourself in this situation, it is going to be OK.”

McLean suggested that parents might be distressed, upset or even angry by what their tween or teen tells them – however these emotions need to be kept under wraps. Her advice is to “remain calm, and say: ‘OK, tell me what’s happened and let’s work through it.’ All of these things can be worked through and your child will be OK”.

If your child is a victim of sextortion – whether it’s because they sent a nude photo or criminals manipulated their image or video using AI – the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) urges parents not to blame their child, and not to pay or engage further with those who are asking for money.

“Don’t delete the images, videos or messages if you still have them,” said the IWF. “Contact the police. You can make a report online here. It’s important that law enforcement is aware of what’s happening.”

Images, videos or links can also be reported using the Report Remove tool. The IWF can then see if they can get it taken down.

Regardless of whether you’re parenting boys, girls, primary-school aged kids or older teens, McLean urges parents to be “an active participant” in their child’s online world. You’d walk the dog with them, or take them to sport, she notes, so she advises having that same active participation when children are online.

“You need to play games with them, you need to be aware of what they’re doing, who they’re doing it with,” said McLean. “[Parents] should regularly check their devices – what apps and platforms are they using it? Who are they talking to?”

She ended: “It’s not invading their privacy, it’s parenting.”

Lily Allen has responded to her ex-husband David Harbour’s recent take on her hit album West End Girl.

The British singer has previously described her latest release – which came out in October 2025 – as a work of “autofiction”, inspired by “what went on” towards the end of her marriage to the Stranger Things actor, albeit with some artistic licence applied.

Earlier this year, David broke his silence on his ex-wife’s album in a June interview with Variety.

“It is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art,” he responded when asked about West End Girl.”

“And so, I respect her for doing that,” the Black Widow actor continued, although he also stated: “I don’t think I could say it’s all true.”

“Stories are complex,” he noted. “And that’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. [But] it wasn’t my experience.”

During a new interview with The Cut published on Monday, Lily responded to her ex’s comments about her candid songwriting.

When asked if she had “any reaction to his reaction to your art”, Lily admitted: “I think that was a generous thing for him to say.”

She also highlighted the critical acclaim he recently received for his drama, DTF St. Louis, for which he recently won an Emmy.

“He’s having a real moment of success as well, right?” she pointed out. “He’s been nominated for an Emmy, and it’s great.”

“We’re all doing our own thing, and we’re all doing what we’re supposed to do. If there’s one thing I know about David Harbour, it’s that he’s an excellent actor,” she added.

Lily and David were married for four years before splitting in December 2024.

Due to Lily’s candid songwriting, West End Girl generated lots of debate and online speculation about exactly what inspired it – which the Brit Award winner has insisted is something she doesn’t mind.

“If I feel really strongly about something, then great, because I will use it for my art and I will write about it. The rest of it is noise,” she said when asked about the fan response.

However, some of the rumours which came from her songwriting did frustrate the singer.

“People really filled in the blanks of the phone call at the beginning of the album, and that is interesting to me,” she stated, maintaining she “left it blank for a reason”.

She continued: “Also a lot of people have incorrectly interpreted the lyric ‘Why are we here talking about vasectomies’. I’m not going to explain to you what it actually means or why I added it in there. But it’s truly a fucked-up lyric.”

Lily is currently touring the US with her West End Girl tour.

Earlier in the run, the show sparked some debate online, due to the fact that Lily’s performance clocked in at under an hour, and only included songs from West End Girl, with no audience interaction.

“I am essentially acting out a past version of myself. And I’m really committed to telling that story. Like, I don’t talk to the audience. The show is very much behind a fourth wall,” she told The Cut of her current show.

However, it should be noted that fans generally received the show well, with HuffPost UK declaring the tour to be “an ambitious high-point in Lily’s 20-year career”.

Olympian Amy Hunt has opened up about why she was so disappointed by Sydney Sweeney’s controversial new advert.

Amy is one of several female athletes to have spoken out against Sydney’s ad campaign for the betting brand Novig, which many have suggested “sexualises” women’s sports.

Speaking to the BBC after completing the Ultimate Championship over the weekend, the silver medallist said: “Sydney Sweeney, this is what women in sport look like.”

On Tuesday, she then addressed the matter on Good Morning Britain, claiming: “When we’re trying to provide role models for young people and young women in sport, we really want to show that it’s about what your body can do, not so much what it looks like.”

Amy continued: “When we see the stats [saying] 64% of young girls drop out of exercise and sport before they reach the age of 16, we don’t need to place any kind of barrier whatsoever in their way in terms of providing the opportunity and the empowerment for them to still exercise – whatever that looks like, professional, or kind of just going to do a ParkRun with your friends.

“So, it’s about empowering young girls and young women and young people to show that you really can just get out there and you don’t have to worry what you look like, you don’t have to worry about what you’re wearing.”

However, she added: “The reaction has almost outweighed the moment because the first thing I saw was all of the positive compilations of women in sport. It’s actually kind of moved. It’s separated itself from from the moment entirely.

“And it’s not anything personal against that actress. It’s more the kind of intention, and it’s just moved into a completely different spin now, where we’re able to kind of have all these different things celebrating women’s sport.”

In Sydney’s new ad, she’s seen posing nude, save for various bits of sporting equipment, while claiming: “Novig is just sports. So, they wanted to show… just sports.”

Although Sydney has not yet commented publicly on the backlash, she did appear to reference it in a string of Instagram story posts shared on Sunday night.

The Emmy nominee posted a string of nude photo-shoots participated in by leading sporting figures, including Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Megan Rapinoe, Rob Gronkowski, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jason Kelce.

HuffPost UK has contacted Sydney Sweeney and Novig for comment.

Of course, this is not the first time Sydney has landed herself at the centre of controversy over an advert.

Last year, she found herself in hot water over a very different ad campaign, when it was suggested that a promo video for American Eagle she’d appeared in had mirrored the language of white supremacists and eugenicists.

Sydney later said she had been left “surprised by the reaction” to the clothing advert, after spending months mostly swerving questions about the media storm, while the fashion brand insisted their promo clip had been “about the jeans” and nothing more.

“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their American Eagle jeans with confidence, their way,” they insisted. “Great jeans look good on everyone.”