6 h. ago From Hadestown to Hercules: ancient myths are the gods’ gift to musicals

Newly arrived in the West End, Disney’s demigod is the latest mythological A-lister to knock out showtunes. Why are deities such as Hermes and the ‘half-blood’ Percy Jackson having a moment in musical theatre?Ancient Greek dramas have long thrived on the West End stage. In recent times: Sophie Okonedo’s electrifying Medea, Brie Larson’s high-wire Elektra and Mark Strong’s smoothly political Oedipus. But the likes of Hades and Eurydice are less often found belting out big numbers alongside a dancing ensemble. Until now, it would seem. Mythological musicals are on the rise: Disney’s Hercules opens this month and Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown is in its second year at the Lyric while The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is going on tour this summer.“Greek theatre has influenced every facet of our lives, from athletics to religion,” says Cedric Neal, who plays Hermes in Hadestown. “What better than for it to be translated to the stage with music, choreography and dance?” Neal has...

Politics

10 h. ago LA protests live: Newsom to deploy 800 more police to ‘clean up Trump’s mess’ after president mobilizes 700 Marines

A battalion of 700 U.S. Marines and 4,000 National Guardsmen are set to be deployed as demonstrations against ICE raids continued into Monday evening

Politics

11 h. ago Katie Price sparks concern among fans as she struts on stage with tiny frame and inflated bum

Katie Price has left fans concerned after she appeared on stage wearing next-to-nothing while performing at a Pride event in Portsmouth

Politics

13 h. ago Blix Not Bombs review – former UN weapons inspector revisits the Iraq war

Greta Stocklassová’s documentary films Hans Blix, aged 97, and asks about his role in the war, WMD, and why his world of diplomacy has now disappearedAt the age of 97, entirely lucid, still writing books and physically spry enough to be shown swimming in a Norwegian lake, former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has given an extended interview to the Czech-born Swedish film-maker Greta Stocklassová about his life and times, about George W Bush Jr, Saddam Hussein and the weapons of mass destruction that were not there. The result is insightful and a vivid time capsule for the grim and mendacious era of the “war on terror”, during which Blix was tasked with discovering the truth about Saddam’s supposed weapons. The film is also unexpectedly spiky, with Blix at one stage threatening to walk out, as Stocklassová presses him on his apparent fence-sitting, then as now, insisting on an absence of evidence for WMD but also reluctant to commit himself definitively to this being evidence of abse...

Events

15 h. ago Stephen Miller: the architect of Trump’s hardline immigration policy

White House deputy chief of staff has a blueprint for implementing the president’s signature pledge

Events

25 h. ago Trump Tower taken over by ICE protestors as police make at least 24 arrests

The infamous tower in New York owned by United States President Donald Trump has been taken over by angry Americans, with officers arresting at least 24 people.

Events

28 h. ago As a child I showed little interest in my mum’s sewing skills. After she died, I realised what I’d missed out on | Nova Weetman

She filled my wardrobe with patchwork skirts and home-knitted vests and a dark-green corduroy coat – things that I would kill for nowThere is a photograph of a very young me wearing a homemade A-line denim dress with a peace sign boldly embroidered on the front. Mum made me the dress for an anti-nuclear rally sometime in the mid-1970s. I don’t remember wearing it that day, or being carried on my dad’s shoulders as we marched with thousands of protesters, but I do recall wearing many of the other clothes Mum made me as a child.There was a lemon floor-length cotton number that she pintucked by hand for my role as the narrator in the school play that would swish around my ankles as I walked across the stage. And a white cropped top that she splattered with neon paint, designed to show up under the fluorescent lights of the Blue Light disco when I was in my Wham phase and trying to attract a boy I liked from school. But my favourite was the spotted taffeta bubble skirt of my dreams that...

Events

30 h. ago Stagecoach drivers left with 'absolutely no choice' as six week strike begins

The striking drivers say they understand how important the county's bus services are to their communities.

Events

30 h. ago Katie Price sparks concern as she performs onstage in tiny bodysuit

Katie Prince took to the stage at Portsmouth Pride at the weekend, with the 47-year-old former glamour model strutting around in a revealing body suit – and fans made the same comment

Politics

31 h. ago Jessie J details ‘worst day so far’ as she describes 'drowning' in negative feelings after breast cancer diagnosis

The singer revealed last week that she’s been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer

Events

31 h. ago NIH scientists go public to criticize Trump's deep cuts in public health research

Scores of National Institutes of Health researchers and staffers have come forward to send their Trump-appointed leader a letter challenging policies they say undermine the NIH mission

Science

33 h. ago Trump’s travel ban could cement racism as his most dangerous legacy

From his so-called ‘Muslim ban’ to slashing DEI measures, the US president has turned taboo behaviour into normsThis month marks exactly 10 years since Donald Trump coasted down an escalator at Trump Tower, declared his run for US president and accused Mexico of sending drugs, criminals and rapists into the homeland. The past decade has been exercise in normalising.When Trump threatened to terminate Elon Musk’s government contracts, and Musk linked Trump to the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, all because of a petty clash of egos, people were riveted but unsurprised. Likewise, when Trump ordered a travel ban on a dozen countries, many reacted with a collective shrug: well, of course he did. Continue reading...

Politics

34 h. ago Cristiano Ronaldo shows true colours over injury nightmare and Roberto Martinez

Cristiano Ronaldo was forced off in the closing stages of Portugal's Nations League final win over Spain, with the forward admitting he was struggling with an injury that he suffered in the warm-up

Events

38 h. ago We are witnessing the first stages of Trump’s police state | Robert Reich

The national guard’s deployment in Los Angeles sets the US on a familiar authoritarian pathway. History shows the resultsNow that Donald Trump’s tariffs have been halted, his big, beautiful bill has been stymied, and his multi-billionaire tech bro has turned on him, how does he demonstrate his power?On Friday morning, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducted raids across Los Angeles – including at two Home Depots and a clothing wholesaler – in search of workers who they suspected of being undocumented immigrants.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Politics

38 h. ago We are witnessing the first stages of a Trump police state | Robert Reich

The national guard’s deployment in Los Angeles sets the US on a familiar authoritarian pathway. History shows the resultsNow that Donald Trump’s tariffs have been halted, his big, beautiful bill has been stymied, and his multi-billionaire tech bro has turned on him, how does he demonstrate his power?On Friday morning, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducted raids across Los Angeles – including at two Home Depots and a clothing wholesaler – in search of workers who they suspected of being undocumented immigrants.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

Politics

42 h. ago LA protests live: Police pushing back protesters, 500 Marines ‘prepared to deploy’ while Trump accused of trying to ‘provoke chaos’

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says ‘chaos’ in city ‘is provoked by the administration’

Events

50 h. ago Trump uses LA protests to redirect dissent from policy failures to the ‘enemy within’

Critics see deployment of national guard as an authoritarian flex by a strongman who has relentlessly trampled normsDonald Trump walked out to a thunderous standing ovation as Kid Rock’s “American Bad Ass” boomed from the sound system. He watched martial artists slug it out behind a chain-link fence. A female champion let the US president try on her gold belt. It was a night of machismo, spectacle and violence.Shortly before he joined an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night, Trump had signed an order deploying 2,000 national guard troops to Los Angeles, where protests sparked by sweeping immigration raids led to clashes between authorities and demonstrators. Continue reading...

Events

51 h. ago 'Not just a party:' World Pride celebrations end with defiant politics on display

After the raucous rainbow-hued festivities of Saturday’s parade, the final day of World Pride 2025 in the nation’s capital kicked off on a more downbeat note

Politics

52 h. ago Ally Wollaston pips British teenager Cat Ferguson to Tour of Britain title

New Zealander claims overall victory at the lastLorena Wiebes takes the stage win for SD Worx-ProtimeThe teenage prodigy Cat Ferguson came within a hair’s breadth of executing a memorable overall win in her debut Tour of Britain, but was outsprinted by her rival Ally Wollaston at the climax of the final stage in Glasgow.The pair came into the final sprint tied on time, after Wollaston had erased the 19-year-old Ferguson’s overall lead. Bonus seconds for third place in the final sprint, behind the stage winner, Lorena Wiebes, was enough for the New Zealander to snatch the overall win. Continue reading...

Politics

53 h. ago LA protests live: National Guard arrive after being deployed by Trump amid protester and riot police clashes

Demonstrators clash with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in hours-long stand-off

Events