Hundreds of Harry Potter fans gathered along Oxford Street as the UK’s biggest themed superstore opened its doors, while pro-trans activists staged a protest nearby.

Actor Warwick Davis was among the stars attending the grand opening of the expansive new shop earlier today.

Demonstrators opposing author JK Rowling’s gender-critical views also assembled outside, carrying placards, using megaphones and leading chants.

Their slogans included “Trans rights are human rights” and “When trans are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back”.

One protester said: “We will be here protesting all day. We’re sorry for the noise but unfortunately kids are dying.

“Trans kids are killing themselves. Trans kids are homeless and we need to think about those children.”

Dedicated Harry Potter fans arrived in elaborate costumes, with some beginning to queue late last night in the hope of being among the first visitors inside.

The flagship store covers more than 21,000 square feet across two floors and takes inspiration from Diagon Alley, the magical shopping district featured in the bestselling book series.

Trans activists had previously petitioned against Harry Potter-themed Christmas lights in London, arguing that the display could make LGBTQ+ people feel unwelcome because of JK Rowling’s “anti-trans” views.

Festive decorations have appeared on Oxford Street to promote the launch of HBO’s new Harry Potter television series on December 25. However, HBO recently confirmed the three main child stars would not attend the official switch-on.

Dominic McLaughlin has been cast as Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton will play Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout will portray Ron Weasley.

A channel spokesman said: “With production of our second season already under way, we are mindful of our young actors’ busy schedules and are judicious when it comes to asks of their time on top of their production and education commitments.”

More than 10,000 people have emailed London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, urging him to “pull the plug on transphobia” and cancel the themed Christmas lights.

The petition, launched by the Good Law Project, objects to the association with Ms Rowling’s work because of her gender-critical views.

The campaign page states: “Sadiq Khan says he’s an ally of the trans community, declaring that trans rights are human rights and that London will remain a safe, welcoming space for trans people.

“So why is he allowing one of the most famous anti-trans people in the world to take over Oxford Street?

“Harry Potter lights on one of London’s busiest streets will not make trans people feel Christmassy, welcome or safe.”

‘JK Rowling has promised she’ll use some of the money from the new Harry Potter series to fund the anti-trans rights movement. This will only make her more money.

‘Khan told trans people “this city is yours too”. If he really means it, he’ll stand with the trans community, and against hate. Email him now and ask him to pull the plug on transphobia.’

When the Daily Mail contacted Lord Khan, his office said he was not responsible for the Christmas lights on Oxford Street, which are instead organised by the New West End Company.

The New West End Company currently has no plans to pull down the decorations, which will be accompanied by the opening of a Harry Potter shop on the street.

Ms Rowling, who wrote the books on which the new HBO series is based, is a prominent gender critical and feminist campaigner.

She has, however, denied that her views are transphobic, saying she respects ‘every trans person’s rights to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them’.

A New West End Company spokesman said: ‘New West End Company has partnered with HBO Max for this year’s Oxford Street Christmas decorations, offering millions of fans an exciting way to discover the magic of Harry Potter as they look forward to the series coming this Christmas.

‘The partnership celebrates the joy of the festive season and is intended to create an enchanting experience for visitors to Oxford Street and the West End, which continues to be a place where all are welcome.’

A spokesman for the Mayor added: ‘The Christmas lights on Oxford Street are not arranged by the Mayor or the Oxford Street Development Corporation, and this is a matter for the New West End Company and local businesses.

‘The Mayor is clear that he will always support and champion all of London’s diverse communities, including trans and non-binary Londoners.’

The new store opening today features the Hogwarts Bear Ceremony, where fans can create their own custom bear complete with a house robe, scarf and tie.

It will become the second official retail destination for the book series after the sister site at King’s Cross Station.

It comes amid a growing trend of unofficial Potter shops opening in London and other UK tourist cities as retailers try to cash in ahead of next year’s new TV series.

There are at least six such stores in London’s West End alone, with names including Magical Platform, Spellbound Emporium and House of Wonders.

While some sell genuine Harry Potter merchandise, they are not affiliated with Warner Bros or author JK Rowling.

Many of the stores sell a range of pricey but genuine merchandise linked to the books and films despite being unaffiliated with studio Warner Bros or author JK Rowling.

They are most prevalent in London’s West End where there are at least six, with names such as ‘Magical Platform’, ‘Spellbound Emporium’ and ‘House of Wonders’.

The official Oxford Street store is expected to give fans a new destination to buy merchandise directly from the brand behind the films, potentially putting pressure on the unofficial retailers which have increasingly become part of the capital’s tourist landscape. 

A retail expert previously said the move showed Warner Bros’ plans to ‘squeeze the oxygen out of the unlicensed market.’

Mr De Mello, founder and chief executive of JDM Retail, told the Daily Mail: ‘It is high time that Warner Bros finally reclaimed the narrative on Oxford Street.

‘For too long, our nation’s flagship retail artery has been besieged by garish, unofficial ‘souvenir’ shops selling Harry Potter and related merchandise of questionable provenance.

‘By planting their flag so firmly on Oxford Street, Warner Bros is effectively squeezing the oxygen out of the unlicensed market,’ he continued.

Many of the pirate stores sell a range of pricey but genuine merchandise linked to the books and films despite being unaffiliated with studio Warner Bros or author JK Rowling.

They are most prevalent in London’s West End where there are at least six, with names such as ‘Magical Platform’, ‘Spellbound Emporium’ and ‘House of Wonders’.

The new flagship will also be only Britain’s second official Harry Potter shop, following the store at King’s Cross station, although fans can also buy merchandise at the Warner Bros Studio Tour in Leavesden.

The Oxford Street site is being billed as a fully immersive experience rather than simply a shop.

Warner Bros says visitors will be able to explore ‘beautifully themed spaces’, discover one-of-a-kind products and encounter magical moments created for witches, wizards and Muggles alike.

Fox News anchor Bret Baier challenged Donald Trump on live television after the president criticized the network’s midterm election polling, which had projected major Republican defeats.

The exchange unfolded shortly after midnight ET, when Baier asked Trump whether he had concerns about “candidate quality” following the losses of Texas Senate hopeful Ken Paxton and South Carolina nominee Darlene Graham, both of whom had received his support.

Trump said he had “no choice” but to back Paxton before turning his attention to Fox News’ polling operation. “The Fox polls are terrible,” he said, urging the network to find a better pollster.

Baier immediately pushed back, telling the president that the night’s election results were, in fact, largely consistent with the forecasts Fox News had published.

Fox’s final midterms polls, published November 1, had projected that Democrats would gain control of the House of Representatives—a prediction that ultimately proved correct.

The Fox News forecast also labeled the Senate race a toss-up, with Democrats eventually winning control there as well.

Fox News had also described several races in traditionally Republican states, including Kansas and Texas, as too close to call. Democrats went on to secure historic victories in both contests.

Even after Baier pointed out the similarity between the projections and the final results, Trump continued criticizing Fox’s polling.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Trump replied when Baier challenged his claim.

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He then argued that Fox’s polling involving him had been inaccurate for 12 years, insisting that the network had repeatedly underestimated his support.

“I shouldn’t say this,” Trump added, before comparing his standing with the support once recorded for Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. He claimed that while he had enjoyed substantially higher numbers, Fox had portrayed him as unpopular.

Trump returned to his central criticism, saying Fox News needed a new pollster because he believed the network’s surveys had consistently produced the wrong conclusions.

‘But I don’t care, it doesn’t matter.’

Trump previously told Fox News he’d accept the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections, which saw Democrats take control of Congress and make deep inroads in multiple deep-red states.

The humbled president also told The New York Times that he was open to working with the Democrats, saying: ‘We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them.

‘We’ll probably work something out.’ 

The president earlier said that he blamed his unpopular invasion of Iran in February for the Republican party’s drubbing at the ballot box.

He insisted that he did not regret the bombing, which saw Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei killed in an air strike.

Iran responded by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a body of water through which approximately 25 percent of the world’s seaborne oil passes.

That saw sharp rises in gas prices and the general cost of living.

Trump swept to a huge victory in 2024 by vowing to tackle price spikes under the Biden administration, while also promising ‘no new wars.’ 

Cyber criminals have stolen more than 320,000 files from schools in Bristol and released them on the dark web.

The data was taken from a server used by the schools to store sensitive information about pupils, including educational psychology reports.

Bristol City Council said personal data belonging to 39 schools had been stolen from its Trading with Schools platform, which was targeted in a cyber-attack in September.

However, the council said cyber security specialists are still working to establish the full scale of the data breach.

Headteachers at the affected schools are now advising families to take precautions, including checking bank statements for unusual transactions and reporting suspicious emails.

Vik Verma, the council’s Director of Education and Skills, said: ‘We recognise that news of data being stolen in connection with this cyber-attack will be concerning for parents, carers, school staff and the wider school community.

‘We understand that people will want to know what information may have been affected and whether it relates to them or their family. Establishing that remains a key priority in our investigation, and officers are reviewing a large volume of material as quickly as possible.’

He said families should remain cautious about unexpected messages, emails and phone calls while the investigation continues.

‘We would encourage everyone to remain vigilant,’ he added.

‘We continue to work closely with schools, cyber security specialists and law enforcement partners to understand the full impact of this incident.

‘We will keep schools, parents and carers informed as more information becomes available.’

Avon and Somerset Police and the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit (SWROCU) are supporting the council as investigations continue.

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Hackers infected the Trading with Schools platform with malicious software on September 21.

Council officials discovered the attack four days later and took the system offline.

The platform serves 88 schools under the council’s umbrella. Of those, 49 use it only to purchase internet services.

The other 39 schools, whose data has been published online, depend on the system more extensively for daily operations, including scheduling, lesson planning, staff records and payroll.

The cyber incident has caused significant disruption across the schools, with many unable to use their telephone systems while the platform was shut down.

Teachers have also been working longer hours as they try to find alternative ways to deliver lessons.

The dark web is a concealed part of the internet that is not listed by standard search engines and requires specialist software to access.

Dr John Curry, a reader in cyber security at Bath Spa University, said while the dark web has its legitimate uses, it is mostly used by people ‘selling bad things’.

He said that hacks such as this are usually carried out by crime syndicates who extract the data then pass it on to brokers who attempt to sell it.

He told BBC News: ‘They chop it up into chunks and decide who could use this – “if you buy this from us, you could use it to blackmail teachers and parents who have people at the school, you buy this set from us you might be able to use it for financial data”.’

The cyber security expert said once the data has been sold, it is often dumped online in its entirety to show other criminals what the hacking group is capable of in order to garner more work of this nature.

The Daily Mail approached Trading with Schools for comment. 

The SWRCU was not able to comment on a live investigation.

Some of the most prominent figures in Donald Trump’s MAGA movement were left demoralized Tuesday night after Democrats made a dramatic comeback and reclaimed both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

Within hours of polls closing, Democrats had taken control of the House and Senate, potentially securing substantial majorities in both chambers.

Ben Shapiro led the reaction from the right, acknowledging on The Daily Wire: “We’re just getting wiped out.”

At the time, Shapiro was referring to states where Democrats appeared poised to deliver stunning upsets, including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.

“I mean, these are deep red states,” he said, referring to states where Democratic candidates have since been declared the winners.

Shapiro described the results as a blue wave that could not be explained simply by the usual arguments about candidate quality. In his view, that was not the main reason Republicans lost the races.

Instead, he placed the blame squarely on Trump.

“This is happening because there is a generalized dyspepsia with the presidency, and I don’t know another way to see that,” Shapiro said.

Trump, for his part, blamed the candidates and emphasized that he had not been on the ballot, despite urging MAGA voters to view the results differently.

“I wasn’t on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he wrote.

Trump also spoke by phone with Fox News, maintaining his support for the Iran War while acknowledging that its economic consequences had hurt the Republican Party.

“People agree with what I’m doing on Iran, but they probably weren’t willing to deal with the short-term, early consequence of paying more for gasoline,” he said. “You know, I understand that. I don’t agree with it. Too bad.”

A White House official characterized the mood as “defiant” and echoed Trump’s argument that the election was not a referendum on his administration.

“Candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves,” the official said.

The official added: “Also, anyone who voted Democrat today is going to have a serious case of buyers’ remorse when gas prices come down quickly when the Iran conflict is solved, but they’re still stuck with a list of liberal extremist Democrats.”

“And a final note here: Regardless of how today plays out, President Trump’s resolve to stop the Radical Left is only going to become stronger. Buckle up.”

Elon Musk, who is often credited with providing the financial backing and influence that helped Trump secure his 2024 victory, responded to Tuesday’s losses with a joke.

‘Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time,’ he wrote on X.

‘Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,’ he wrote in a follow-up post.

Meanwhile, the rest of the President’s MAGA allies were everything from enraged to downright depressed. 

‘I hate to say it, but America is over,’ declared Laura Loomer. 

‘The communists and jihadists are going to open our borders and replace our votes with votes from illegals aliens. We now have reps who openly speak about their hatred of America, their love of communism and their support for sharia law.’ 

‘We won’t be able to undo the damage they cause on our country come 2028. America 250 was a funeral. The American Dream is dead.’

Chris Christie, an ex-Trump ally who became a critic of the President from the right, declared this the official end of the Trump era.

‘When you put Darline Graham losing, Paxton losing, and now Abbott losing, the Trump era is over. It is over. You cannot lose at this level,’ he said on ABC News.

‘We’re looking at maybe 240 seats in the House. The Democrats appear to be headed to a majority in the Senate, and I think you’re gonna to wind up with near-27 Democratic governors. The Trump era is over, and when Greg Abbott, who was extraordinarily popular as a three-term governor, loses tonight in a state like Texas, I don’t care what the president says on Truth Social. The Trump era is over.’

Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once one of Trump’s closest allies, called it a deserved result for Trump’s first two years of his second term.

‘Trump’s biggest betrayal to the American people isn’t what he failed to do. It’s what he promised NOT to do… and did anyway,’ she wrote.

‘We gave President Trump our support, we gave him our money, we gave him our vote, we gave him our time and we got behind him publicly and he didn’t deliver. President Trump only delivered for his rich, powerful elite friends who are part of the Epstein class. He delivered for his high dollar donors, big tech friends, for foreign countries and foreign wars. Americans are fed up with it.’

Pundit Matt Walsh, a longtime Trump supporter, put the blame squarely on Trump’s adventures in Iran.

‘The Iran War is the greatest political blunder in the last two decades at least. A catastrophically stupid decision. An unforgivable betrayal of America First principles,’ he said.

Sean Hannity, as true an ally to Trump as any in conservative media, put the blame on the president’s decision to attack Iran.

‘I think 100 percent. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,’ he said when asked if the Iran War was the driving factor in the crushing midterms result.

‘Americans are good people with a heart, and they didn’t like some of what they saw. I would argue on Iran, there was, unfortunately, it’s the best thing for our children and grandchildren, but higher gas prices, how people feel, I think is the more dominant feeling force right now,’ he added.

Kristi Noem, the former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, had a different view of what went wrong.

‘Larry Kudlow is correct. We were too successful the first year of the Trump administration,’ she wrote. Noem was fired shortly into Trump’s second year. 

Libertarian Congressman Thomas Massie, who was ousted in a primary against a Trump-endorsed challenger, placed the blame solely on his party.

‘Tonight’s outcome isn’t about placing faith in Democrats or socialist principles; it’s about holding Republicans accountable for betraying their promises. All Republicans had to do was: 1. put Americans First. 2. not start another war. 3. prosecute sex traffickers.’

Scott Jennings, the most prominent Republican voice on CNN and at one point a candidate to become White House Press Secretary, admitted it was a terrible night.

‘Well, look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. There’s a political science term for what’s happening. It’s called a country a**-whooping. That’s what’s happening right now, across the board.’

‘There’s a lot, a lot, a lot of reasons for what’s happening right now. The most immediate issue is cost of living and gas prices. And that is the bottom line,’ he continued. 

The president was staring down an election-night nightmare on Tuesday as Democrats surged toward taking control of the House of Representatives in a crushing blow that threatened to cripple the final two years of his presidency. 

Republicans were bracing for a feared blowout as the Democrats also claimed the first major Senate battleground of the night, with former North Carolina governor Roy Cooper snatching a crucial seat from GOP hands.

The victory turned the Tar Heel state blue and delivered another ominous warning to Trump as his party fights to stave off a devastating midterm defeat.

In the Senate, Democrats must flip four Republican-held seats to gain control. In the House, they need to pick up just three seats.

Americans turned out in droves to make their voices heard on a slew of issues, including the cost of living and the war in Iran, while chaos erupted in several key battleground states.

Trump officials watching the event breathed a sigh of relief when top Republican candidates won narrow victories in Florida, offering some early hope in the evening. 

But major losses for Republican candidates in Texas had the reverse effect. 

Incumbent Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who ran for Senate, went down in blistering defeats. 

Trump took to Truth Social to rage against Abbott, whom he blamed for flipping to a ‘RINO’ – Republican in name only. 

‘If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,’ seethed Trump. 

‘He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!’

The president endorsed Republican candidates in important races, including in South Carolina where the late Senator Lindsey Graham’s sister Darline lost a bid for his Senate seat. 

Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, defeated Graham, becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in South Carolina since 1998. 

Her defeat came despite Trump making three recent visits to the state to bolster her campaign. Andrews was ahead even in traditional Republican strongholds, including Greenville County.

In neighboring North Carolina, former Democratic governor Roy Cooper defeated Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman, to capture the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis.

It was the first Democratic Senate victory in the state since 2008, delivering a second Republican-held seat to the opposition.

Republicans also failed to dislodge Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, who defeated Trump-backed Congressman Mike Collins to secure a second term.

Ossoff was the only incumbent Democratic senator defending a seat in a state Trump carried in 2024, making his victory a significant missed opportunity for Republicans.

GOP candidate Michael Whatley also lost his bid for the Senate in North Carolina.

The president spent much of Tuesday urging voters to support Republican candidates but failed to drive out the vote. 

Another Trump advisor told the Daily Mail that Republicans failed to attract the same coalition that he rallied to victory in 2024.

‘Republicans have had ten years to figure out how to draw those low propensity Trump voters to the polls, if they can’t get it done, they deserved to lose.’ 

Trump spent the last 32 days holding 30 events in 20 states for Republican candidates. His MAGA Inc. PAC spent over $370 million for Republicans. 

One Trump insider said the results were disappointing but that the president had always expressed doubt that Republican majorities could survive the midterms.

The White House legal team has been preparing for a slew of investigations launched by newly empowered Democrats in the next Congressional term. 

‘I fully expect the president to dig in, and fight fight fight,’ the insider said. ‘He’s been through this before.’