3 d. ago ‘Don’t you besmirch Super Mario Bros!’: how video game adaptations became prestige TV

From The Last of Us to Fallout, the days of ropey dramas stemming from consoles is over. Television insiders open up about why high-end shows and gaming now go hand-in-handTwo teenagers plan how to dispatch their latest undead enemy: a kill-shot to the head, or a knife in the side of the neck? One of them throws a glass bottle, distracting their prey. Then she goes in for the kill with all the breezy confidence of a kid playing a video game on easy.It’s a rare moment of playfulness in the second-season opener of The Last of Us, a show that generally takes its storytelling deadly seriously. While the wildly lucrative Minecraft movie strip-mines its IP for laughs, this celebrated HBO series, adapted from the PlayStation titles of the same name, is as focused on taut character drama as the thrills and spills of the zombie genre. Continue reading...

Culture

5 d. ago Two prison officers stabbed by Manchester bombing plotter in stable condition

Two prison officers allegedly stabbed by one of the plotters of a deadly bomb attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, eight years ago are in a stable condition in the hospital, the union representing them said Sunday

Events

9 d. ago Prison officer union demands end to pressure cooker conditions in Scottish jails

"Damning indictment" on Scottish Government after report reveals poor conditions in crumbling, Victorian-age Barlinnie Prison

Events

1 week ago Briton held by Taliban with wife describes dire conditions in Kabul jail

Peter Reynolds, 79, detained with his wife, Barbie, since February, says prison is ‘nearest thing to hell I can imagine’A Briton held captive by the Taliban for more than nine weeks has said he is living in dire conditions in a prison in Kabul, describing it as “the nearest thing to hell I can imagine”.In a recording of a phone call from Pul-e-Charkhi prison, Peter Reynolds, 79, also spoke of his fears for the safety of his wife, Barbie, who is being held in the women’s section of the the maximum-security jail. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Brit pensioners locked up in Taliban jail chained to 'killers, rapists and man possessed by demon'

Peter Reynolds, 79, and partner Barbie, 76, were arrested near their home in Afghanistan in February and held without charge, as they suffer hell conditions with hardened prisoners

Events

2 w. ago Julie Hogg's killer Billy Dunlop to remain in closed prison conditions after panel denied move

William Dunlop, now 61, strangled Julie Hogg in Billingham, County Durham, in 1989 and hid her mutilated body behind a bath panel where it lay undiscovered for more than two months

Events

2 w. ago Julie Hogg's killer Billy Dunlop to remain in closed prison conditions after panel denies move to open prison

William Dunlop, now 61, strangled Julie Hogg in Billingham, County Durham, in 1989 and hid her mutilated body behind a bath panel where it lay undiscovered for more than two months

Events

2 w. ago Briton held for more than six years in India without trial speaks out: ‘My whole life is destroyed’

Exclusive: Christian Michel speaks to Namita Singh on the sidelines of a court hearing in Delhi, where he has been granted bail but cannot meet the conditions to leave the capital’s notorious high-security prison

Politics

2 w. ago Myanmar earthquake: woman trapped for days pulled alive from the rubble

Brief moment of relief as rescue workers carry a woman from the rubble of a hotel in Mandalay after a five-hour operationMyanmar earthquake: What we know so farA woman trapped beneath the remains of a hotel building for nearly 60 hours after a devastating earthquake struck Myanmar was pulled alive from the rubble on Monday, officials said, in a rare moment of hope for rescue teams scrambling to find survivors.Rescuers, many of them unequipped volunteers, have spent days trying to free people from buildings collapsed following Friday’s huge earthquake, which killed more than 1,700 people in the country and at least 18 in neighbouring Thailand. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Extreme heat without AC in Texas prisons is unconstitutionally cruel punishment, judge rules

A federal judge has found the extreme heat in Texas prisons that don’t have air conditioning is “plainly unconstitutional.”

Events

3 w. ago My brain could explode at any moment thanks to a rare condition that's made me a prisoner in my own body

Amber Ford, 31, from South Lanarkshire, Scotland, was diagnosed with up to three aneurysms in her brain after an MRI scan in 2024 - but her symptoms started six years earlier.

Events

3 w. ago Whining jailed Just Stop Oil activist, 78, complains about prison and reveals the 'insulting' thing she was asked to do

A 78-year-old grandmother who was imprisoned for joining in a Just Stop Oil protest on the M25 has blasted the conditions of the female prison she spent Christmas in.

Events

3 w. ago Whining jailed Just Stop Oil activist, 78, complains about prison and  reveals the 'insulting' thing she was asked to do

A 78-year-old grandmother who was imprisoned for joining in a Just Stop Oil protest on the M25 has blasted the conditions of the female prison she spent Christmas in.

Events

3 w. ago Just Stop Oil activist, 78, who was jailed for scaling M25 gantry during climate protest moans about 'insulting' thing she was asked to do in prison

A 78-year-old grandmother who was imprisoned for joining in a Just Stop Oil protest on the M25 has blasted the conditions of the female prison she spent Christmas in.

Events

3 w. ago Just Stop Oil activist, 78, who 'had only ever climbed an apple tree' before scaling M25 gantry during climate protest reveals 'insulting' thing she was asked to do in prison

A 78-year-old grandmother who was imprisoned for joining in a Just Stop Oil protest on the M25 has blasted the conditions of the female prison she spent Christmas in.

Events

3 w. ago Sam Warburton and crowd blown away by rare moment as kicker left stunned

Wales legend Sam Warburton was hugely impressed by Will Muir's determination.

Events

3 w. ago Kieran Culkin's wife shares rare insight into marriage and moment she knew he was 'The One'

Jazz Charton has opened up about her marriage to Oscar-winning star Kieran Culkin and shared details of their early dating years and moment she knew he was 'the one'

Politics

3 w. ago Fears for health of British couple held by Taliban as ‘trial delayed’

Afghanistan prison conditions were described as ‘brutal’ and likened to ‘what I imagine hell is like’

Politics

4 w. ago ‘We don’t know how any of this will play out’: what’s next for US deportees in El Salvador

Political scientist Mneesha Gellman on the deportees’ fates, dire prison conditions and Bukele-Trump parallelsThe Trump administration has flown 238 Venezuelans to an El Salvador prison that human rights groups say is designed to disappear people.Despite a judge’s order temporarily blocking the move, the US government flew more than 200 men that it had accused of gang membership to the “Terrorism Confinement Center”, or Cecot – a draconian mega-prison that has become central to the promise of the Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, promise to rid his country of crime. Continue reading...

Politics