Actor Theo James Urges More Support for Refugees Hit by Climate Crisis

 Actor and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Theo James looks on during a visit to Aghor, while on a trip with the United Nations refugee agency, in Mauritania, October 9, 2024. (UNHCR/Caroline Irby/Handout via Reuters)
Actor and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Theo James looks on during a visit to Aghor, while on a trip with the United Nations refugee agency, in Mauritania, October 9, 2024. (UNHCR/Caroline Irby/Handout via Reuters)
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Actor Theo James Urges More Support for Refugees Hit by Climate Crisis

 Actor and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Theo James looks on during a visit to Aghor, while on a trip with the United Nations refugee agency, in Mauritania, October 9, 2024. (UNHCR/Caroline Irby/Handout via Reuters)
Actor and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Theo James looks on during a visit to Aghor, while on a trip with the United Nations refugee agency, in Mauritania, October 9, 2024. (UNHCR/Caroline Irby/Handout via Reuters)

Refugees should be included in climate policy, actor and UNHCR goodwill ambassador Theo James has said as he heads to COP29 to call for greater support for those affected by the impact of climate change.

James, whose grandfather was a refugee who fled Greece for Syria during World War Two, will join the UN refugee agency and refugee advocates at the climate summit in Baku.

"The Gentlemen" and "Divergent" actor travelled to Mauritania's southeastern Hodh Chargui region last month, meeting refugees who had fled conflict in Mali for an area already facing poverty, limited access to basic services and climate shocks.

The semi-arid Sahel has been hit by increasing weather extremes including higher temperatures and drought.

"Refugees do not contribute to the vast majority of rising global temperatures and carbon emissions but they are on the frontline of suffering," James told Reuters.

In its first climate report released on Tuesday, the UNHCR said three out of four forcibly displaced people worldwide - 90 million out of 120 million - lived in countries exposed to high to extreme climate change impacts.

“Now the UNHCR has ... specific data which links the climate crisis to forcibly displaced people and the refugee crisis, we need to amplify the message that those two things are intimately interlinked," James said. "They will forever be hand in hand and more so in the future."

The summit has been dubbed the "climate finance COP" for its central goal: to agree on how much money should go each year to helping developing countries cope with climate-related costs.



Magic Can’t Save ‘Harry Potter’ Star Rupert Grint from a $2.3 Million Tax Bill

Rupert Grint poses for photographers upon arrival at the special screening of the film "Knock at the Cabin" in London, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP)
Rupert Grint poses for photographers upon arrival at the special screening of the film "Knock at the Cabin" in London, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP)
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Magic Can’t Save ‘Harry Potter’ Star Rupert Grint from a $2.3 Million Tax Bill

Rupert Grint poses for photographers upon arrival at the special screening of the film "Knock at the Cabin" in London, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP)
Rupert Grint poses for photographers upon arrival at the special screening of the film "Knock at the Cabin" in London, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. (AP)

Former “Harry Potter” film actor Rupert Grint faces a 1.8 million-pound ($2.3 million) bill after he lost a legal battle with the tax authorities.

Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the magical film franchise, was ordered to pay the money in 2019 after H.M. Revenue and Customs, the UK tax agency, investigated his tax return from seven years earlier.

The agency said Grint had wrongly classed 4.5 million pounds in residuals from the movies — money from DVD sales, TV syndication, streaming rights and other sources — as a capital asset rather than income, which is subject to a much higher tax rate.

Lawyers for Grint appealed, but after years of wrangling a tribunal judge ruled against the actor this week. Judge Harriet Morgan said the money “derived substantially the whole of its value from the activities of Mr. Grint” and “is taxable as income.”

Grint, 36, starred in all eight Harry Potter films between 2001 and 2011 as the boy wizard’s best friend, and is calculated to have earned around 24 million pounds from the role.

He previously lost a separate court battle over a 1 million pound tax refund in 2019.