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Fire up the Furby synth! Meet UK Eurovision entry Look Mum No Computer at his mind-boggling music museum

Sam Battle is a retro audio tech obsessive. Our writer gets a tour of his museum just as he unleashes his prized exhibit: a 1,000-oscillators-strong Megadrone!

‘I didn’t really plan to do Eurovision at all,” muses Sam Battle as he takes me round his museum, pushing a shock of ever-so-slightly mad scientist hair from his youthful face and coaxing drone sounds out of abstract metal boxes as we go. “I was chatting to Johnny, my friend who works here, and we were saying wouldn’t it be funny to do it. So, we sent an email to the BBC asking, ‘Is there any way we can get on it?’ and they said, ‘Well this guy might be interesting …’”

Known to his fans as Look Mum No Computer, Battle has built a cult following with his wild fusions of music and esoteric technology. The persona started life as a side project when he was lead singer with the indie could-have-beens Zibra in the mid 00s. When the band split up in 2016, Battle threw himself into the world of Look Mum No Computer, filling his YouTube with videos of him rejigging everyday technology into weird and wonderful new shapes, whether that be by turning Sega Megadrives into working synths, or Henry vacuum cleaners into flame-throwers. In this world, nothing was thrown away, and any amount of lead could be transmuted into the gold of a song.

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Tue, 12 May 2026 14:42:14 GMT
Labour MPs channel Tory psychodrama as Starmer keeps hiding in plain sight | John Crace

While some are working out how to get rid of the prime minister, others are already plotting against his rival

It used to be football managers who measured their time at a club in months. Or even days at Spurs. Anything over two years qualifies you for a long service medal. Now it’s prime ministers. In fact it’s worse than that. Because it’s also people who might one day be prime minister.

While some Labour MPs are working out how to get rid of Keir Starmer, others are already plotting how to force Wes Streeting out of office should he jump the gun before Andy Burnham is ready to launch his challenge. Who knows where all this could end? Somewhere in the metasphere. It can’t be long before Liz Truss is no longer our shortest serving prime minister. Long live the lettuce.

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Tue, 12 May 2026 16:32:10 GMT
A warning to the news industry: act now or the Joe Rogan/Piers Morgan ecosystem will leave you far behind | Deborah Turness

There is a revolution reshaping how people want and get their information. News brands can and must react, but the time is now

  • This is an extract from the Sir David Nicholas memorial lecture that Deborah Turness delivered in London on Tuesday evening

No one can dispute that, today, the news industry is once again experiencing a revolution; a revolution that is reshaping news for a new generation of consumers. The disruption transcends all news brands. It impacts all journalists and all journalism, everywhere.

I am an optimist. I believe there are very good reasons to believe in a bright future for what I call the established news providers. So I am determined, having spoken to many people for this dispatch from the frontline, to set out a positive way forward.

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Tue, 12 May 2026 18:29:01 GMT
The 100 best novels of all time

A countdown of the greatest literature published in English, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. How many have you read?

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Tue, 12 May 2026 13:00:47 GMT
He hunted for his daughter’s killer for 40 years. Then he got a phone call

Tim Miller’s teen daughter disappeared in 1984, tied to a series of deaths in the Texas ‘killing fields’. After decades, he received a tip that unlocked everything

Tim Miller is good at finding missing people – or rather, their bodies. Four years ago, a stranger called him and left a rambling message claiming that he had important information about an unsolved murder case.

Miller, who lives in Texas and runs a non-profit search-and-recovery organization called EquuSearch, did not treat the message as a high priority. The caller sounded as if he might have been drunk or on drugs. Although tips are vital to EquuSearch’s work, the tip line brings a certain number of hoaxes, cranks and innuendo. Some of the people who leave messages, Miller told me, “probably ought to get their medication checked”.

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Tue, 12 May 2026 14:00:48 GMT
The hantavirus outbreak has been well-handled – but there are still dangerous days ahead | Devi Sridhar

All the protocols that health experts like me look for have been followed. But outbreaks on cruise ships are notoriously hard to control

  • Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

Hantavirus: the disease you wish you’d never heard of, as visions of the Covid pandemic flash through your head. I’ve seen lots of breathless coverage and some bizarre takes on social media, so I imagine many people are confused as to what’s going on.

Let me start by saying that this isn’t the Covid pandemic – only Covid was Covid. Previous hantavirus outbreaks have been contained (although none were on a cruise ship). So, for now, the risk to the general public is low – colleagues and I are still carrying on as normal and watching to see whether new infections arise outside the original cruise ship group. Those new infections would be the key step-change determining whether we see further spread and higher-risk public health alerts – or whether we’re at the end of this outbreak.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, and the author of How Not to Die (Too Soon)

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Tue, 12 May 2026 15:02:09 GMT
Starmer given a lifeline after Streeting challenge fails to materialise

Downing Street insiders suggest health secretary does not yet have the support for a leadership push

Keir Starmer was increasingly confident that he had seen off the immediate threat to his job on Tuesday after a challenge from Wes Streeting failed to materialise despite several of the health secretary’s allies quitting the government.

Downing Street insiders suggested that the health secretary did not yet have the required support from the 81 MPs he needed to formally launch a leadership bid after Starmer issued a “put up or shut up” ultimatum to his cabinet.

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Tue, 12 May 2026 19:54:48 GMT
How Keir Starmer lost authority over two days of confusion and drama

Labour leader remains UK prime minister despite mounting calls to step down before state opening of parliament

As the afternoon faded in Westminster, final preparations were being made for Wednesday’s state opening of parliament, where King Charles will set out a year-long legislative programme for a government that even its most ardent allies fear might not last the week. Once again, here we are.

Keir Starmer is still the UK’s prime minister. It is even possible he might be in a few months from now. But after two days punctuated by confusion and drama on a scale that belies Labour’s promise to end years of political upheaval, his authority appears shredded. What is less certain is what exactly that means.

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Tue, 12 May 2026 20:00:09 GMT
Starmer hopes to regain momentum with unveiling of dozens of bills in king’s speech

Planned legislation includes housing, immigration and energy measures, and comes amid awkwardness with the palace over Charles’s role

Keir Starmer will attempt to regain the political initiative on Wednesday as his government announces a package of 35 bills for the next parliamentary session, covering everything from housing to immigration.

The embattled prime minister will release details of dozens of bills that he intends to pass over the next 12 months, even as his own MPs line up to demand his resignation.

Additional reporting by Caroline Davies

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Tue, 12 May 2026 21:30:15 GMT
Online safety campaigners reveal Starmer frustrations after Phillips exit

PM accused of dragging heels on forcing tech firms to block transmission of nude photos on children’s phones

Internet safety and children’s rights campaigners have accused Keir Starmer of failing to act on proposals to stop children sending and receiving nude images on their phones, after Jess Phillips resigned from the government saying she was tired of seeing “opportunities for progress stalled and delayed”.

The Labour politician was one of four ministers who quit on Tuesday and joined more than 80 MPs calling for the prime minister to go.

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Tue, 12 May 2026 18:58:07 GMT

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