The CIA once promoted abstract expressionism as a tool of regime change. Now we have AI videos of Trump bombing people with faeces

If a leading scientist is right, we have five years until we’re being sextorted by smart kettles and facing the ‘ultimate risk’ to our existence – and yet AI can't recognise an album format. It almost...

The story of the blissfully psychedelic bricolage that launched The Orb's career, introduced ambient house to the masses and even prompted a lawsuit from Rickie Lee Jones

Cornish blogger Elizabeth Dale takes us to the village of Mawnan Smith where strange stories of a mysterious creature known as the Owlman are told.

The debut LP from Chilli Jesson’s new project will land in January.

Neil Couling said failings by individual claimants ‘at the heart’ of crisis, despite a report finding DWP shortcomings ‘unacceptable’ One of the most senior civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has placed the blame for the carer’s allowance benefits crisis on victims, many of who have been left with life-changing debts. In an internal blogpost written for Whitehall colleagues, Neil Couling, the director general of DWP services, said individual failings by carers were “at the heart” of the issue that has been likened to the Post Office Horizon scandal. Continue reading...

Sankeys will return in January 2026 in a city centre venue – and no phones will be allowed on the dancefloor

Another year (almost) gone and another year of fantastic releases. As always, here at Louder Than War, we have put our hive mind together to come up with

The Night Manager Season 2, starring Tom Hiddleston, has set January premiere dates for both BBC One in the UK and Prime Video in the US.

Around the release of their latest EP ‘Plan 76’, The Orchestra (For Now) share the merits and pitfalls of being one of the country’s buzziest and overtly maximalist new groups.

Daniel Dylan Wray remembers Mani at a My Bloody Valentine show and relishes in the healing powers of volume and noise.

The fly-tipping in Oxfordshire is threatening the health of the local river – just as 25 years of platforming the Reform leader in the media has polluted our national discourse

The inquiry says an earlier lockdown could have saved 23,000 lives in the first wave in England - and lockdown could have been avoided altogether with earlier interventions.

Lockdowns may have been avoided if Boris Johnson’s government had acted faster, damning report finds

Report on handling of pandemic contains stinging criticism of ‘toxic and chaotic’ culture inside Boris Johnson’s No 10

Report criticises culture in Downing Street during Boris Johnson’s tenure

Ian Brown and Tim Burgess were among those to pay tribute to Mani, whose death was announced by his brother and nephew