Election watchdogs could investigate the £72 million in donations given to Reform UK by two crypto billionaires, HuffPost UK can reveal.

Labour MP Phil Brickell has asked the Electoral Commission to clarify whether Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne’s donations are permissible.

Brickell, who is chair of the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption, said: “The British public deserve complete confidence that all political donations are lawful, transparent and come with no strings attached.”

It emerged on Friday night that Delo, who has moved back to the UK from Hong Kong, has given Reform £36m.

The following day, the party announced that Harborne had donated the same amount. It is unclear whether he has returned to the UK from Thailand, although he is understood to have registered to vote in Hampshire.

A law currently going through parliament would cap the amount of money overseas-based donors could give to UK political parties at £100,000.

Under the new rules, anyone wishing to give more than that would have to have been based in the UK for at least 12 months on March 25 this year.

Housing secretary Angela Rayner suggested on Sunday that Reform may have to give at least some of the money back if Delo and Harborne did not comply with the new law.

In a letter to Electoral Commission chief executive Dr Vijay Rangarajan, seen by HuffPost UK, Brickell says “it appears very likely that both donors were still registered overseas on – and for some time after – March 25, 2026”.

He added: “I would therefore be very grateful for swift clarification from the Electoral Commission on whether you see grounds for opening an investigation into the permissibility of the two £36m donations.”

Brickell, the MP for Bolton West, has also asked the Commission whether Reform may be forced to give back at least some of the money.

He said: “The British public deserve complete confidence that all political donations are lawful, transparent and come with no strings attached.

“The unprecedented scale of these donations raises important questions which require urgent clarification from the Electoral Commission.”

The Commission has been contacted for comment.

Meanwhile, Reform leader Nigel Farage has conceded that the donations may not be permissible under the new law.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: “Both these donations are 100% compliant with the law today, of that there is no question whatsoever.”

Asked if Delo and Harborne were based in the UK on March 25 this year, Farage said: “I’m not going to go into their particular details. All I’m going to say is, with the law of the land as it stands, they are both compliant.

“Now, there is talk, and Angela Rayner was talking about this yesterday, there is talk of them retrospectively declaring donations illegally.

“Well, that simply cannot be.”

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Oasis have finally confirmed the worst-kept secret in music – they’re heading off on tour again next year.

Fresh from the release of their concert film Don’t Look Back In Anger, brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher announced on Monday afternoon that they’ll be hitting the road for a new string of shows in 2027.

“START THE CELEBRATIONS!!!!” they said in a joint statement. “After a period of reflection, ‘The Most Damaging Pop Cultural Force In Recent British History’ has declared itself fit for purpose and will once again return to lift the spirits of the people.”

“Come witness the fitness. It shall be a sight to behold,” they added.

The new shows will begin in Glasgow at the end of May 2027, with a run of five shows at Celtic Park.

From there, as was previously rumoured, they’ll set up residency in their hometown of Manchester, for 11 nights at the Etihad Stadium in June.

After that, they’ll be hitting up Munich, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome, before heading to North America for gigs in Boston and Las Vegas.

The tour will then conclude with two nights at Slane Castle in Ireland, before four more shows at Knebworth, marking 30 years since the band’s last record-breaking jaunt there.

Alright, pay attention, because famously, tickets were pretty hard to come by for Oasis’ 2025 shows.

A registration process for the 2027 tour has been set up, which is already open for fans over on the band’s website.

To be in with a chance, you must register before 4pm on Thursday 17 September. If you’re successful, you’ll then be sent a non-transferable code, with tickets then going on sale on either 25, 26 or 27 September, depending on which date you want to go to.

An official press release explains: “The registration process is the only public way to buy tickets for Oasis Live ’27. There will be no general onsale or other public presales outside of this process. This structure has been created to ensure the purchase process is as fair and smooth as possible for Oasis fans.”

Standard ticket will range between £71.50 and £266.60, including fees. For more ticket info, you can visit Oasis’ website here.

Macklemore will no longer be performing as the opening act for Ed Sheeran on his ongoing US tour, after the rapper made headlines with a number of his pro-Palestine comments.

On Monday afternoon, a spokesperson for Ed’s current tour, Messina Touring Group, told Rolling Stone: “As the concert promoter for Ed Sheeran’s U.S. Loop Tour, we have been notified by venues on the upcoming US tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the line-up, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans.

“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”

During his sets earlier on in Ed’s tour, Macklemore declared “free Palestine” from the stage, expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and showed images conveying the damage in Gaza on screen.

“A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘free Palestine’,” he said on stage while performing in New Jersey earlier this month. “I said, ‘free Palestine!’.

“I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them.”

Following this, a petition was set up calling for Macklemore’s removal from the tour by the Israeli American Council.

HuffPost UK has contacted representatives for both Macklemore and Ed Sheeran for comment.

One of Macklemore’s most vocal critics since his on stage comments in support of Palestine have begun making headlines is the singer Pink.

In the days that followed, she reposted an image on Instagram alleging that the Thrift Shop rapper had used the concert to spew “anti-Israel propaganda”, calling for an apology from Macklemore for what he’d said on stage.

She later issued a lengthier statement on social media, part of which read: “I was in the room at the Grammys in 2014 when Macklemore rapped Same Love and thirty-three couples, gay and straight, got married to it, and I cheered, no questions asked.

“Four months later Macklemore put on a hooked nose, a black beard and a bowl cut, performed in it, and called it a ‘random costume’. Every Jew I know knew exactly what it was. The same love, it turned out, had a guest list, and we weren’t on it. But he apologised, and I let it go, because that’s what we do. We let it go.

“Then last weekend he stood in front of a stadium full of music-loving families, with violent images from a war on the screens, dedicated a song to the movement of his choice, and then took the mic to tell all of the Jews in the stadium that it wasn’t about them. You don’t get to decide that for us. That’s what prompted my repost. Not ‘Free Palestine’, and not anyone’s right to say it.

“I have never asked for another artist to be silenced and I’m not asking now. I don’t need anyone fired, and I don’t need a refund. What I need is to be able to say, as a Jewish mum, ‘that scared me, and it scared people I love’, without being told our fear is just propaganda, and without being told I’m somehow cool with genocide because I noticed?”

Irish The leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have pledged to work together to end the United Kingdom.

For the first time ever, the first ministers of all three countries are the leaders of nationalist parties.

SNP leader John Swinney and his Welsh counterpart Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid Cymru, both want independence for their countries.

In Northern Irleland, Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill wants Ireland to be reuinted.

All three of them met in Cardiff on Monday to sign a “memorandum of understanding” setting out their aims.

It said: “For people watching across these islands – for people watching around the world – there could be no clearer sign that Westminster’s time is coming to an end.”

So how likely are they to see their political wishes come true?

Unlike in Wales and Ireland, the question of whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom has already been put to the people.

In 2014, Scots voted by 55% to 45% to remain part of the UK in a fiercely-contested referendum.

It took place because the then prime minister, David Cameron, agreed to temporarily transfer the power to organise such a referendum from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament.

At the time, the then SNP leader and Scottish first minister, Alex Salmond, described it as a “once in a generation” event.

Since then however, successive SNP leaders have demanded a second referendum, and every time it has been refused by the PM of the day.

Opinion polls continue to show that the people of Scotland are evenly split on whether their country should be independent.

Speaking in cardiff, John Swinney said it was “crystal clear” that there should be a referendum during the current Holyrood term, which ends in 2031.

However, there appears to be little appetite in Scotland for a re-run of the 2014 vote in the near future, meaning the prospect of independence is likely off the table for the next decade at least.

Last May, voters in Wales elected a Plaid Cymru government for the first time in the devolution era, which began in 1999.

Indeed, it was the first time in over a century that Wales had rejected the Labour Party.

Although Plaid Cymru are committed to Welsh independence, the most recent opinion poll showed that just 32% of the country would currently vote to leave the UK, compared to 68% who are happy with the status quo.

However, the same poll, by Survation, showed that independence has majority support among Welsh under-45s.

That suggests that while a referendum on the subject is not on the agenda right now, it could be at some point in the future.

In the meantime, Plaid Cymru is committee to demanding more powers be devolved from Westminster to the Welsh Assembly.

Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “While Wales and Scotland are on different constitutional journeys, we both share a commitment to strong, accountable devolved government, and to a relationship between the governments of these islands built on trust and mutual respect.

“We share a belief that our people should decide their own future, and that the union isn’t working fairly for either nation.”

The question of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland becoming one unified country for the first time in more than a century was thrown into sharp focus at the weekend by none other than Donald Trump.

Speaking during a visit to Ireland, the US president said he “would love to see” it happen, adding: “It’s going to happen eventually.”

His comments sparked an angry backlash from many of Trump’s supporters, including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

However, they were welcomed by supporters of reunification, including Michelle O’Neill.

She said: “I think the comments from the president of the United States very much reflect the fact that the unity debate is very much alive, and people are engaged in it, not just at home, but obviously now internationally as well.

“I think that tells us where we’re at with where the thinking is around: what is the big prize here for our people? And the big prize here is unification.

“It is the end of partition and it is that new beginning in a new Ireland.”

However, just as in Scotland and Wales, there is little prospect of Irish unity any time soon.

Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended the Troubles in 1998, a so-called “border poll” can only happen if the Northern Ireland Secretary believes there is majority support for one.

But the most recent opinion poll, in May, showed that support for Northern Ireland remaining in the UK stands at 58% to 42% in favour.

While it is doubtlessly significant that the largest parties in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all nationalist, it does not necessarily follow that the break up of the United Kingdom is inevitable.

The gathering in Cardiff of Swinney, ap Iorwerth and O’Neill, and their memorandum of understanding, was a good PR stunt, but is unlikely to shift the constitutional debate in any of their countries.

While Scotland’s first minister declaration that Andy Burnham will be the last prime minister of the UK was a neat soundbite, there is a vanishingly small chance of it actually becoming true.

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Though not all of our dementia risk is within our control, a standing commission from The Lancet has found that up to 45% of our likelihood of developing the condition is down to “potentially modifiable” lifestyle choices.

These include more obvious habits, like not smoking and controlling blood pressure. But some less expected variables – such as protecting your hearing and staying socially connected – matter too.

According to a new paper published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, meanwhile, two habits in midlife might significantly lower your odds of cognitive decline (sometimes seen as a precursor to dementia) in older age.

In this research, scientists assessed the heart health of 402 middle-aged and older adults using the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 measurements.

These include eating habits, body mass index (BMI), smoking status, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar.

Sleep has since been added to this list, now called Life’s Essential 8. But because this wasn’t included when the study began, researchers didn’t measure it in this study.

Study after study has found an association between brain and heart health. So, the researchers wanted to look at how each component of the Simple 7 list corresponded to cognitive decline risk.

After years of follow-up, physical activity and blood sugar levels seemed to have the strongest influence on participants’ rates of cognitive decline.

Hispanic adults in this US-based study saw greater benefits from higher levels of physical activity, while white non-Hispanic adults seemed to reap greater rewards from well-controlled blood sugar.

Hispanic adults are at greater risk of dementia in the US.

Dr Janette Vazquez, the study’s lead author, said: “Our findings suggest that engaging in any level of physical activity and potentially maintaining optimal fasting blood glucose levels in midlife are associated with a significantly slower rate of cognitive decline in late life”.

But she added that more research is needed: “The longitudinal exploration of cardiovascular health throughout life, rather than assessing it at a single time point, could also provide further insight into the trajectory phenotypes contributing to cognitive decline by ethnicity”.