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In 2002, 91-year-old Edwin Hiles was murdered in his Oxfordshire home and the way police tracked down his killer changed forensic investigations forever and led them straight to the killer

Frail 91-year-old Edwin Hiles was brutally murdered in his Oxfordshire home by a former local slaughterman who cut his phone line so he couldn’t call for help.

Paul Weedon, 24 – who worked in the ‘gut room’ of Mutchmeats’ slaughterhouse in Witney, Oxfordshire – stabbed the pensioner in the throat in 2002 after trying to rob the widower when he refused to give him money for rent.

Mr Hiles’ body was found in the front downstairs living room of his semi-detached home by a neighbour who had called in to see him. But there was no sign of the killer.

Mr Hiles was known in his community for his small-scale money lending to those in hard times and detectives immediately linked his murder to his generosity and that he may have had cash at his house

What followed changed British forensic science forever. In order to catch the killer, investigators pioneered a breakthrough technique known as “fibre-taping” for the first time in the UK – linking the victim’s body directly to bloodstained clothes Weedon had stashed in a nearby woodland close to where he was living in Chipping Norton.

Rather than just gathering loose fibres to see if the two people interacted, investigators used a complete, grid-indexed tape on both the killer’s clothing and Mr Hiles’ body to reconstruct their positions during the attack.

During the trial in 2003, Weedon had changed his story multiple times, even claiming to have seen drug dealers kill the elderly widow, according to the Oxford Mail. He also claimed he had been deliberately framed by an acquaintance who had had dealings with Mr Hiles.

But later on, he then said he stabbed Mr Hiles in the throat after the pensioner came at him with a kitchen knife to stop the robbery. In mitigation, Julian Baughan, defending, said: “This wasn’t pre-planned. It was intended possibly as an application for a loan which turned into a robbery which went wrong.”

The breakthrough forensic testing from 2003 will be shown and explained on the brand new documentary series UK Forensic Breakthroughs on the True Crime channel. Spanning across 10 episodes, each instalment will focus on its own murder case where scientific breakthroughs and microscopic evidence secured justice for grieving families.

Forensic scientist Jo Millington will give exclusive access to the experts behind the investigations, including the case of Edwin Hiles, which is set to air on September 27. Jo Millington has been a forensic scientist for over 30 years, even working behind the scenes on BBC’s Silent Witness.

Speaking of the new documentary, Jo Millington said UK Forensic Breakthroughs stands out from other crime shows and explained: “The first difference is that it puts forensic science at the heart of the show, which normally sits on the periphery in the shadow.

“Over a 10 part series, we’re using the programme to kind of assure a spotlight on forensic science. And more importantly, the scientists that do forensic science, every single day.”

Jo explained how forensic evidence isn’t just about fingerprints and bloodstains. Speaking to the Mirror, she said: “Forensic science is based on the principle that every contact leaves a trace and that’s exactly what people do when they commit a crime. Every interaction, every step has the potential to leave material in the crime scene or take it away.

“The challenge sometimes is finding the evidence in the first place, but once forensic scientists do find it then they can start to interpret it and put it into the context of an investigation.

“The evaluation of the science is really important. For example, finding my DNA in a place where I live or work is unlikely to unlock a case, but if investigators find my fingerprint in the blood of the person that has been injured, then that is like a timestamp.

“It tells you I was there when the person was bleeding – that contextual evaluation is vital – and in that particular example, I would have questions to answer.”

As well as shining a light on the forensic science work, Jo aims to tackle one common misconception about her job. She added: “The thing about forensic science is it’s mostly a process – things need to happen in a particular order in line with a particular method and the results need to be checked and double checked by people who are trained and competent.

“The chain between the evidence that is collected from a crime scene and the scientific findings that are presented to the court, and the jury, needs to be water-tight. That level of diligence and checks takes a longtime.”

TRUE CRIME is available on Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview, Freesat and Freely as well as for streaming via TRUE CRIME UK (FAST), accessible on platforms including Prime Video, Rakuten TV, Pluto TV, Plex, LG Channels, Samsung TV Plus, ITVX and 5.

Days before the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art officially opens, protesters from the Fair Games Coalition — wearing Jedi robes and Jar Jar Binks masks and carrying lightsabers — rallied together outside the new museum.

Dozens of people from the group fighting for better worker protections during major sporting events were loudly blowing horns, banging drums and chanting, “Sí se puede,” directly across from Exposition Park’s newest museum. The group was at the museum’s private opening party Saturday night to take a stance against museum co-founder Mellody Hobson‘s recent resignation from the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee, LA28.

“We launched the campaign with some real, reasonable demands,” said Jessica Durrum, the director of the Fair Games Coalition, for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. “If the Olympics are coming to town, we want to make sure there are lasting benefits for our communities.”

The Fair Games Coalition, which is made up of over 80 organizations, formed to fight for better labor deals during major events like the Super Bowl and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Some of the unions in the coalition include United Teachers Los Angeles, National Union of Healthcare Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, United Farm Workers and various community groups.

Ahead of these events, the group is asking that employers provide union and living wage jobs, funding for 50,000 units of housing for working families, a moratorium on short-term rentals and protections for immigrant workers.

Gladys Avyla marches in a Fair Games Coalition protest outside the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

(Jonathan Alcorn / For The Times)

Gladys Avyla, a member of Unite Here Local 11, has worked as a cleaner at the W Hotel in Hollywood for the last 14 years. Several years ago she had to move to Victorville when her rent in L.A. got too high. Avyla said that with these major sporting events coming through town she’s worried the cost of living will continue to rise as her work gets busier and busier.

“Rent is very high, and everything is expensive. It’s hard living here. We need a wage increase for the Olympics because everything costs so much,” Avyla said in Spanish. “We need help for all workers. We’re human beings, but, honestly, we aren’t treated like human beings.”

Hobson, who co-founded the billion-dollar museum alongside her husband, George Lucas, resigned from LA28 earlier this week. She reportedly stepped down from the position due to the demands of running the Lucas Museum.

But the Fair Games Coalition claims she responded to their requests to meet and discuss their concerns by resigning. The 35-person board led by Casey Wasserman, who was recently under heat for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, is meant to help plan and execute the upcoming Olympic Games.

“That’s how you hide your head in the sand. But we’re not giving up. She still has clout and still has a lot of power in the city of Los Angeles with the Olympic Committee,” said the Rev. Gary Bernard Williams from St. Mark United Methodist Church, a member of the coalition. “There’s going to be a lot of money flowing at the top. Very little money will be trickling down to the workers who need it the most.”

Demonstrators at a Fair Games Coalition protest at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

(Jonathan Alcorn / For The Times)

LA28 and the Lucas Museum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During this year’s World Cup, where several games were hosted in L.A., Unite Here Local 11, the union which represents workers including dishwashers, concession workers, bartenders and servers and SoFi Stadium’s food-service operator Legends Global, came to a tentative agreement days before the first match. Pastor Bridie Roberts, who works as the community organizing director at Unite Here Local 11, said having the Fair Games Coalition’s support was helpful during the negotiations.

“Our members face serious, critical decisions every single day about how to make ends meet and they work with some of the biggest tourism companies in the world that will profit in the billions of these games,” said Roberts. “We feel that the games have potential to bring real outcomes for working people, but only if we fight for them.”

Caracas, September 14, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service announced a package of measures to boost US agricultural exports to Venezuela amid growing concerns about the South American country’s national production.

According to the USDA, the plan will facilitate Venezuelan corporations’ purchase of US food products and agricultural commodities through government-backed credit and will include the delivery of food assistance and training for Venezuelan technicians.

“The Trump administration is committed to Venezuela’s economic prosperity, and USDA is leveraging its export financing, market development programs, technical scholarships, and food assistance initiatives to address this situation,” said Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke J. Lindberg.

Lindberg added that he “looks forward to positioning US agriculture to help meet needs and build lasting trade relationships.” The US official visited Venezuela as part of an official delegation in early July.

Washington’s credit program for food exports will be provided through the reactivation of the GSM-102 guarantee program. The mechanism offers guarantees to exporters that reduce the risk for financial institutions backing the transactions in case importers fail to meet their commitments. 

The Agriculture Department also announced that it will lift restrictions to allow foreign banks to back Venezuela-related transactions.

A USDA report had already estimated that Venezuela would need to import 1.5 million metric tons of wheat during the 2026-2027 marketing year. Corn and soybeans are likewise identified as key staples to be exported to the Caribbean nation. The latest initiative 

The Trump administration also lifted restrictions under its Feed the Future Agricultural Resilience Mission Initiative and plans to include Venezuela in a regional agribusiness trade mission scheduled for early 2027.

A bigger influx of US farm products will place an additional strain on Venezuelan food production, with local campesinos increasingly protesting against imports from agribusiness corporations that seek to drive crop prices down.

On September 9, rice growers from Guárico and nearby states organized a “tractorazo,” blocking a major highway in Calabozo with trucks and tractors to demand that the government halt the entry of imported rice during the domestic harvest season and ensure that agroindustrial companies adhere to established prices.

Protesters complained that imports from countries where food production is subsidized, including the US, create unfair competition and risk driving Venezuelan campesinos bankrupt. The latest mobilization was sparked by the reported arrival of a shipment of 355 thousand tons of rice, more than half of the Venezuelan production in 2025. 

Rural organizations have likewise denounced the exoneration of tariffs and import taxes as another factor putting national production at a disadvantage. Venezuelan authorities, including the National Assembly and the Agriculture Ministry, have vowed to review the import issue but have offered no measures to date.

In the Calabozo protest, producers denounced that imported rice had saturated silos and storage facilities during the 2025-2026 winter-summer crop cycle, forcing them to sell below production cost or lose their crops altogether. Demonstrators demanded a $0.25-per-kilogram subsidy from the state to compensate for the losses incurred and vowed to take the protests to Caracas if they receive no response from authorities.

The September 9 “tractorazo” was the latest in a series of mobilizations in recent months in Venezuela’s main agricultural states. Rice growers have complained about high fuel and input costs and urged the government to establish and enforce fair crop prices. 

According to agriculture lobby FEDEAGRO, more than 2.2 million metric tons of white corn, yellow corn, and rice have entered the country so far in 2026, more than triple the recent combined high of 709,000 metric tons in 2023.

“We cannot continue depending on a neighbor’s pantry. That is a failure. In Venezuela, we have the land, a committed agricultural sector, and people investing in farming, but excessive imports place us at a dramatic disadvantage,” stressed FEDEAGRO President Osman Quero.

Quero stressed that foreign producers have access to credit programs, fuel and fertilizer subsidies, and better infrastructure, while Venezuelan farmers face inflation and a lack of financing programs.

Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Lisbon, Portugal.

TORONTO — Greetings from the Great White North, where the Toronto International Film Festival rolls to the end of its first weekend.

As packed as our viewing schedules have been, Amy Nicholson notices something lacking at this year’s festival: big Hollywood. In her first critical dispatch, she sees no “Frankenstein” or “Wake Up Dead Man” in the lineup.

Toronto has even resorted to rebooking the under-the-radar smash “Obsession,” the little movie that grew from a 2025 midnight TIFF launch into a global phenomenon.

Director Curry Barker and star Inde Navarrette delighted festgoers who lined up around the block to watch a special conversation.

There’s still plenty of time left. Amy is finding indies to like. Some of her early recommendations are here.

Our portrait studio is heating up

Cynthia Erivo of the film “Prima Facie,” photographed in the Los Angeles Times Studio at RBC House during the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Cynthia Erivo stunned us in our studio space, looking fierce in a dark ensemble and scary nails. We also saw the likes of the luminous Laura Linney and the dapper Korean cast of “Possible Love.” Click through for more celebrity photos and daily surprises.

And do we have video interviews? Do we.

Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, and director Cody Fern discuss their new film, “Closing Night.” Chase Infiniti of “One Battle After Another,” Jason Isaacs and more talk “The Julia Set.”

And only minutes after they won the grand jury prize at Venice, we were speaking to the cast of “Possible Love.”

What are we watching tonight?

‘Club Kid’

Jordan Firstman, center, in the movie “Club Kid.”

(A24)

It takes thermonuclear moxie to write, direct and star in your debut feature — and cast yourself as the cad. No wonder Jordan Firstman‘s uproarious dramedy “Club Kid” blew away expectations at Cannes and has landed in Toronto ready to shake up awards season.

Firstman plays Peter, an aging New York City party promoter whose scene-y shindigs and subsequent hangovers are starting to feel old.

Enter Arlo (a self-possessed Reggie Absolom) the 9-year-old kid he never knew he had and never fathomed he would have, given that women aren’t his thing (except for that one drug-fueled night with a British girl he barely remembers).

You may think you know where the story is headed and you aren’t entirely wrong, but the route there is a riot. — Amy Nicholson

‘Alpha Gang’

A scene from the movie “Alpha Gang.”

(TIFF)

The latest from filmmaking siblings Nathan and David Zellner rolls into Toronto after having just had its world premiere at Telluride.

Their oddball sensibilities and elastic imagination means that you never quite know what to expect from one of their films and this is no exception: a wholly unpredictable story of an alien invasion told from the aliens’ point-of-view that is inscrutably absurd and touched by a startling romantic fatalism.

Two alien cadres, having assumed the looks of 1950s biker gang members, bicker and fight with one another even as they largely overlook their common enemy, the humans.

The cast is likewise a preposterous mash-up of performers you would not wholly expect to see together, including Cate Blanchett, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, Chris Pine, Dave Bautista and others, making the film’s very existence seem like something dropped from outer space. — Mark Olsen

‘The Spiral’

A scene from the movie “The Spiral.”

(TIFF)

Italian horror is my happy place and this is where I’ll be tonight at midnight, sopping up what many early viewers have already described as stylish and vicious.

Director Paolo Strippoli’s domestic drama got sharp reviews out of Venice; it sounds like a cross between a Bava film and “Parasite.” I’ll investigate. — Joshua Rothkopf

‘It’s a magical place, and not just because of the hotel.” Standing outside the greenhouses at Högbo Brukshotell, two hours north of Stockholm, Stefan Johansson is talking about far more than hospitality. The former head chef, now responsible for sustainability at Högbo, has spent much of the past decade helping reshape the way this corner of Sweden grows, cooks and thinks about food.

The catalyst was disarmingly simple. Years ago, a journalist asked Johansson why he was cooking the food he was cooking. Like many ambitious Swedish chefs, Stefan trained in Stockholm’s top restaurants, where ingredients from around the world were only a phone call away. The question lingered long after the interview ended.

“Before, I wanted food to be spectacular; I didn’t really care where it came from,” he says. “Then I closed the window of where we source from down to the region. It was the best thing I’ve ever done.” Instead of looking farther afield for inspiration, he began looking closer to home.

Högbo Brukshotell sits in the former Högbo ironworks, a quiet pocket of forest, waterways and historic buildings north of Sandviken. The area’s industrial past is still visible in its old manor houses, smithies and mill buildings, but since the factories fell silent in the mid-19th century, the woods have reclaimed their place. Walking, cycling and cross-country ski trails now lead into the forest, while the old bruk buildings house cafes, workshops and small businesses.

Ingredients that once arrived at Högbo from far away are now grown here. The Made in Högbo project began with lamb, with animal rearing and butchery brought in-house. Vegetable production followed. Now greenhouses sit alongside kitchen gardens, producing ingredients for the restaurant and creating opportunities for people who might otherwise struggle to find work.

Refugees from Myanmar helped establish some of the early growing projects. New arrivals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo have joined the initiative, splitting their time between Swedish language classes and work placements, their influence visible in the rows of papaya, bananas and other plants rarely associated with Sweden. There are plans for an aquaponics system that will combine greenhouse cultivation with tilapia fish farming. In farm buildings there are now also a bakery making sourdough and cakes, a microbrewery run by one of the chefs, a dairy making fresh cheeses, and an excellent deli.

Högbo isn’t the only place asking these questions about food provenance. Over several days travelling through Gästrikland and neighbouring Hälsingland in eastern Sweden, I discover a network of millers, fishers, distillers, cheese makers and chefs connected by a shared idea: that food should reflect the place it comes from.

At Gammelstilla, an old ironworks has become a small whisky distillery. In the village of Gästrike-Hammarby, The Old Mill is now an award-winning restaurant run by Bogdan Ioan Gheorghe and Ellinor Andersson, with a tasting menu that features a roll-call of local producers alongside surprising ingredients such as the invasive species Japanese knotweed.

At Bergmans Fisk, in Norrsundet, low islands scatter across the bay and the Baltic stretches east towards Finland beyond the wooden smokehouses. The business is run by a seventh-generation fishing family whose connection to these waters stretches back more than a century. Inside the smokehouses, salmon hangs in neat rows, a slow process, refined over generations.

But for traditions – and the business – to survive, they have to evolve and diversify, Dennis Bergman explains. In 2020, the family opened a waterfront restaurant overlooking the bay where much of their fish is caught. We enjoy a smorgasbord of smoked salmon and böckling (hot smoked herring) piled on dark rye crispbreads. The family also operates a travelling fish van serving coastal communities and is planning a small hotel: new ventures that will help secure the future of old skills.

Driving north through the deep pine forests and lush fields of Hälsingland, I keep spotting hand-painted signs for potatoes, eggs and strawberries. Outside red-painted farm buildings, honesty boxes sit beside stacks of produce.

At Teve Kvarn, a mill south of Järvsö, I meet Anna Larsson, a seventh-generation miller. She sources grain from roughly a 150km (93-mile) radius, selling seed to farmers and then buying back the grain to ensure high-quality flour production. Only a handful of mills of this type remain in Sweden. Anna points out her newest machine – it was installed in 1930.

Beside the traditional wooden mill, shiny stills are visible in a tall glass building. This is the Tevsjö distillery run by Anna’s husband, Jonas, producing vodka, gin and aquavit using grain from the mill. The distillery runs on hydroelectric power generated from the nearby stream, and has already increased its production capacity more than 10 times on the strength of the products’ popularity – while creating 10 new local jobs.

At nearby Järvsö Lanthandel, I meet chef Tobias Annerhult who runs the general store and restaurant. For Annerhult, local sourcing isn’t just desirable, it’s his entire food philosophy. “I only buy salt, pepper, sugar and oil,” he tells me. “I don’t use stabilisers. Nothing gets thrown away; that feeds the creative process. Our philosophy is to grow through limitations.”

In a climate where vegetables arrive in abundance for only part of the year, preserving is essential. Annerhult pickles, cures and ferments local produce, including meat for charcuterie.

Tonight, we too have to work for our dinner, taking a cooking class that Tobias offers for private group bookings. We have brought produce collected across the region: flour from the centuries-old mill; cheese and potatoes from honesty boxes; fish from a family that has worked the same waters for generations; and vegetables from local greenhouses.

Together, we make fermented pea pancakes with sweet preserved apple and salty local goat’s cheese; bouncy fresh pasta using Anna’s wheat and eggs from Tobias’s chickens, served simply with burrata-style cheese, brown butter and garden herbs; and warm cake with the first of the season’s rhubarb.

It’s a meal that tastes all the better for knowing the stories and people behind it. Combining preserved and fermented ingredients with the season’s freshest produce harks back to traditional approaches to cooking and eating. Today’s chefs are reclaiming that philosophy, and the results are delicious.

It perhaps helps answer the question that changed Stefan’s career all those years ago. Why cook this food, in this place? Because when food truly belongs somewhere, it becomes a way of understanding that place too.

The trip was provided by Visit Sweden. For more information visit gastrikland.se and destinationhalsingland.se. Högbo Brukshotell has doubles from 1,995 Swedish kronor (£155) B&B

Meow Wolf is getting closer to unveiling its Los Angeles locale. When doors open — the company is targeting late 2026 — anticipate a walk-around, floor-to-ceiling experience that pays homage to the art of cinema with a sci-fi, psychedelic-like bent.

And to bring that vision to life, the Santa Fe, N.M.-based experiential art collective will be working with nearly 40 L.A. artists across multiple mediums. Expect more than a dozen sculptural and diorama artists to contribute, along with those who specialize in mixed media for interactive and video content. Local artists will also create a number of murals for the space, and a handful of artists have been chosen to curate their own life-size rooms in the venue at West L.A.’s Howard Hughes entertainment complex.

Artist Gabriela Ruiz will be contributing a major piece to Meow Wolf L.A.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

While the bulk of a Meow Wolf exhibition is envisioned and designed by a core in-house team in Santa Fe, the company partners with dozens of local artists in each city to ensure a local flavor. Here in Los Angeles, the task of curating L.A. artists fell heavily to Han Santana-Sayles. As a SoCal native from a Mexican American family, Santana-Sayles has told me, “I would be dishonored” if the exhibit failed in its mission to capture the breadth of the L.A. population.

“It’s really important to make that intentional,” Santana-Sayles said. “I’m not just going out and saying, ‘They have art I like. I’m going to bring them in.’ It’s a combination. Yes, they’re an amazing artist, and they have a really important story for this region.”

Santana-Sayles worked closely with art curator AJ Girard as Meow Wolf’s local art liaison. Girard has spoken of being inspired by everything from L.A.’s emphasis on social media to commercialism to graffiti art.

“Social media and social capital is so relevant in our city,” Girard said. “How do we make fun of it in an avant-garde, punk, radical way? How do we poke holes at it?”

Artists tapped to create full-scale rooms at Meow Wolf L.A. include Gabriela Ruiz, who crafted an adorably vibrant, multicolored insect that will serve as a periscope, and collective Everything Is Terrible, who described their space as featuring a “cartoony, root vegetable floating alien god.”

Also look for contributions from Compton’s Charles E. Dickson, a renowned self-taught sculpture artist, whose public works can be found throughout the region, including at Metro’s Mariposa Station and outside the California African American Museum, and Jen Stark, whose geometric kaleidoscope art flirts with the natural and the synthetic. Stark’s “Chromatic Cascade” is a staple of downtown’s Art’s District.

Lauren YS (a.k.a Squidlicker) is also tapped to have a room at Meow Wolf L.A., known for hyper-vivid colors and surrealist mythology. The artist currently has a piece in “Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry” at the USC Pacific Asia Museum.

Downtown L.A. street artist S.C. Mero will be contributing a sculpture piece to Meow Wolf L.A.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Others with exhibiting rooms include Wayne White, album artist, surrealist and puppeteer, perhaps best known for his work as the main puppet-maker for the children’s show “Pee-wee’s Playhouse; Seth Bogart, known best as a local musician (Hunx and his Punx); upcycled fashion specialist Corinne Loperfido; cartooney psychedelic artist Killer Acid; and longtime Meow Wolf contributor Nick Toll.

Meow Wolf L.A. lists seven artists as contributing either video installations and games to the space, including artist/musician Vinyl Williams and musician/animator Hugo Shiboski with director/media artist Will Wharton. Animators Réka Bucsi, Agnus Oakes and Cadmiumcoffee, as well as digitial artist Blake Kathryn will also contribute. It was previously announced that local animation house Titmouse would be supplying media for Meow Wolf L.A.

Six artists are slated to paint murals for Meow Wolf L.A. Look for work from Bunnie Reiss, Ozzie Juarez, Greg Ito, Harlen Hue, Evelyn Tan and Devin Reynolds.

Finally, more than a dozen L.A. artists are listed as contributing either sculptures or dioramas to the exhibition. Those artists range from downtown L.A. street artist S.C. Mero to multidisciplinary artist Ruben Ulises to former Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival contributor Sofia Enriquez.

Rounding out the list will be David Altmejd, Sharif Farrag, Joe Holliday, Nemo Gould, Alake Shilling, Elrod, Brooke Weston, Shrine, Hana Ward, Roberto Benavidez, Estevan Oriol, Wizard of Barge, Mike Chattem and Karla Ekaterine Canseco.

Meow Wolf helped define the modern immersive space. Since 2016, when the once-scrappy Meow Wolf opened Santa Fe’s “House of Eternal Return” exhibition, the company has welcomed about 10 million visitors across its four venues in locales such as Las Vegas, Denver, Houston and the Dallas suburbs.