Today, Jim Henson’s dark fairytale is seen as a classic of 80s high camp. But on release, it bombed. Here, members of the cast and crew remember laughter, tricky puppets and Henson’s ‘joyful magic’

Labyrinth arrived 40 years ago with David Bowie at his most devastatingly charismatic, a breakthrough performance by Jennifer Connelly, and lots and lots of puppets. The film about the quest of stroppy teen Sarah (Connelly) to rescue her baby half-brother from the clutches of Jareth (Bowie), the nefarious goblin king, was a dark fantasy that played out like a trippy Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As Sarah tries to navigate an ever-shifting maze, the story evolves into a thoughtful coming-of-age tale.

Director Jim Henson, the creative powerhouse behind the Muppets and Fraggle Rock, breathed life into Labyrinth, and his company Creature Shop designed a dazzling array of puppets to appear alongside the human cast. Labyrinth was visually groundbreaking, but audiences weren’t so keen – the film bombed at the US box office and some reviews were far from glowing. It was only years later, when the film was released on home video and then DVD, that it became the cult classic it is considered now.

Kim Leadbeater, now an MP, and fellow politicians fear that ‘kinder, gentler politics’ after Cox’s death was an illusion

Ten years on from Jo Cox’s murder, Kim Leadbeater fears that the consensus around “kinder, gentler politics” in the wake of her sister’s death was short-lived.

“Sadly and regrettably, over the last decade things are worse,” she says. Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen and mother of two young children, was murdered outside a library in West Yorkshire in June 2016 by an English nationalist.

A conceptually intriguing film that turns the outlaw hero into a selfish criminal struggles to find its footing despite some fantastic craftwork

Spoiler: Robin Hood is going to die. In bluntly titled drama The Death of Robin Hood, that might be exactly what one is programmed to expect but, in this often intriguing revisionist tale, it’s what he leaves behind that might be more of a shock.

With the gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of us continuing to expand at a riot-inducing pace (we now have our first trillionaire – congrats!), it’d be tempting to use a folk hero of the past as a rousing symbol of what many of us would like to see in the present. But in writer-director Michael Sarnoski’s darker, grubbier take, Robin Hood takes from anyone and keeps it for himself, despite what the legend might say. In fact, as played by a dour Hugh Jackman, he’s plagued by stories told by fireside, painting him as someone to be heralded, and it’s only those whose lives he’s touched that know the truth, if they were lucky enough to survive. He’s then an outlaw running not just from the authorities, but from the aggrieved fathers and brothers who want to avenge what he ripped away from them.

Rather than pouring away old aquarium water, you could use it as free plant feed

The problem
Houseplants need liquid fertiliser, but this can be expensive. Fish tank owners, meanwhile, produce litres of nutrient-rich water during water changes, which then gets poured away. Could it feed houseplants instead?

The hack
Water from a freshwater aquarium contains nitrogen, phosphorus and beneficial bacteria. Rather than discarding it during routine water changes, use it to water your houseplants, giving them a free feed.

A new documentary focuses on the hugely successful musician whose life was punctuated by tragedy

Late in the afternoon on 29 October 1971, one of the world’s greatest guitarists, Duane Allman, was riding his motorcycle when he swerved to avoid colliding with a flatbed truck that suddenly stopped short in an intersection. He wound up slamming into the back of the truck with such force, it threw him under his bike which skidded and dragged him for 50 ruinous feet. Suffering a collapsed chest, a ruptured coronary artery and a damaged liver, Allman was pronounced dead three hours later. He was 24.

Four decades after that tragic event, when journalist Alan Light was hanging out with Gregg Allman to ghostwrite the musician’s memoir, titled My Cross to Bear, he couldn’t help but notice how present Duane remained in his life. “In Gregg’s house, he was surrounded by photos of Duane, notes from Duane and music from Duane,” Light said. “It was obvious that he was still very much a part of Gregg’s day-to-day existence. The sadness and loss never left him.”

The much-hyped deal, which is set to be formally signed on Friday in Geneva, doesn’t end the war. It’s essentially a 60-day extension of a ceasefire

When Donald Trump launched his war against Iran in late February, he had ambitious goals: to topple Iran’s theocratic regime, destroy its military capabilities and nuclear program, and instigate a popular uprising by Iranians. A week into the war, Trump said he would only accept Iran’s “unconditional surrender”. On Sunday, Trump settled for a deal that reopens the strait of Hormuz.

The US president celebrated having solved a problem he had created: reopening a vital waterway through which more than a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed each day – before Iran effectively closed it at the start of the war, increasing energy prices and disrupting the global economy. “Ships of the World, start your engines,” Trump wrote on social media in announcing the latest deal. “Let the oil flow!”

Mohamad Bazzi is a Guardian US columnist. He is also director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University

Trots & vereerd & blij dat GeenStijl het zoveelste jaar op rij is uitgeroepen tot meest betrouwbare nieuwsmerk van Nederland door het Commissssssariaat voor de Media (PDF)! Bazin van het CvdM is trouwens Wappie Asante, die voor de PvdA in de Tweede Kamer zat, toen dat niet bleek te werken heel hard 'RACISTEN' riep en sindsdien lid is (of was) van BIJ1. Lmao! Minst betrouwbare nieuwsbron van het jaar is wederom de NOS, maar door het lukraak doorpompen van antisemitische bloedsprookjes over 'orgaanroof', het zonder verantwoording hergebruiken van beelden van andere gebeurtenissen en het dramatische journalistieke giswerk waardoor zelfs de boots on the ground aan de bel trekken wist u al dat de NOS journalistiek niet per se het meest betrouwbaar is. Maar hey, je kunt niet alles hebben als 900 fte ook broodjes kroket in de bedrijfskantine moeten schuiven! En daarom: voor een paar euro per maand GeenStijl steunen. Wij trekken geen belastinggeld, worden niet beïnvloed door Belgische mediakartels én houden die Fontys Journalistiek-bureaufiguren van de NOS een beetje scherp!

NEW YORK (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - De allerrijkste mensen ter wereld profiteerden maandag van het optimisme op de aandelenmarkten. Bij het sluiten van de Amerikaanse beurzen hadden de vijfhonderd rijkste personen op aarde hun vermogen met 336 miljard dollar zien groeien. Dat is volgens de Bloomberg Billionaires Index de grootste stijging ooit op één dag.

Hun gezamenlijke nettowaarde kwam uit op een recordbedrag van 13,3 biljoen dollar, dat is 13.300 miljard dollar.

De aandelenmarkten waren maandag hoopvol gestemd, na het voorlopige akkoord tussen de Verenigde Staten en Iran over de heropening van de Straat van Hormuz. De Dow-Jonesindex steeg hierdoor naar recordhoogte en de brede S&P 500-index en techbeurs Nasdaq noteerden ook flinke plussen.

SpaceX, het ruimtevaartbedrijf van Elon Musk, was de grootste drijver achter de vermogensstijging, doordat particuliere beleggers massaal aandelen kochten. Het aandeel sloot bijna 20 procent hoger. Musk, de eerste biljonair ter wereld, bouwde zijn voorsprong op de rest verder uit.