The first heat of the new series saw six amateur cooks battle it out for a coveted MasterChef apron

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MasterChef has returned to the BBC with a brand new presenting partnership.

The 22nd series welcomes renowned chef Anna Haugh and restaurant critic Grace Dent as they take over from Gregg Wallace and John Torode in the judging roles. The duo will put 48 of Britain’s finest amateur cooks through their paces with a series of demanding challenges.

Tuesday’s opening heat (21 April) saw six skilled home cooks from diverse backgrounds enter the kitchen to compete for a prized MasterChef apron.

The contestants featured digital portfolio manager Rosdip, 33, construction project company director Brendan, 57, tech programme manager Jhané, 29, environmental consultant Sabina, 49, accounts assistant Samantha, 39, and IT manager Matt, 41.

Within minutes of the programme starting, audiences found themselves split over Anna and Grace’s first appearance together. Several viewers were frustrated with the judges’ facial expressions, with one person posting on X (formerly Twitter): “I’m assuming it must be in the contract that judges/presenters on MasterChef must express shocked/surprised faces at every opportunity possible! Gregg and John did it for years and it looks like it’s continuing!” reports the Mirror.

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Another commented: “Someone tell Anna that she doesn’t have to replicate Gregg’s surprised face every time a contestant tells her what they are going to be cooking,” while a third remarked: “I can’t watch #MasterChef any longer. [Anna] and her daft facial expressions.”

A fourth viewer echoed the sentiment: “Why do those two presenters keep making such stupid faces?”

Meanwhile, many other viewers were thrilled with Anna and Grace’s first appearance, with one person writing: “Loving the two ladies, Grace and Anna running the MasterChef kitchen.”

Another remarked: “Love Anna and Grace in this series,” while a third commented: “Absolutely love Anna.” A fourth fan added: “Loving Grace and Anna on #MasterChef.”

Throughout the episode, Anna and Grace put their trust in the amateurs’ palates as they introduced the Signature Dish round, which challenged contestants to prepare their most-loved dish from home.

The cooks who made the best two dishes, Rosdip and Jhané, were immediately rewarded with a MasterChef apron, while the other four fought it out for the last two aprons in the Classic Recipe Test.

Each of the amateur cooks were handed the same recipe for one of Anna’s cherished brunch dishes, designed to put fundamental cooking skills under the spotlight. Those who succeeded in securing their aprons still faced one final obstacle before clinching their quarter-final spot.

Anna and Grace called upon last year’s final three — champion Harry Maguire and finalists Claire Syrenne and Sophie Sugrue — to cast judgement on the dishes on offer. They sampled two courses from each contestant, before Anna and Grace announced the three cooks who would be progressing to the quarter-finals.

MasterChef season 22 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer

Writing in post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said: “Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal.

The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, signed a multi-year with Netflix in 2020, which was once valued at up to $100million (£74m), and led to the release of several projects

Meghan Markle’s latest ploy to woo Netflix bosses has been described as “annoying” by a royal insider.

The Duchess of Sussex’s partnership with the streaming giant has become turbulent recently after projects, such as With Love, Meghan underperformed and faced criticism. The Netflix deal, once valued at up to $100million (£74m), came to an end earlier this year which reportedly left Meghan and Prince Harry exploring new avenues.

But Meghan was last week spotted cosying up to the boss of Netflix and his wife at a party in California. It is now reported the Duchess has been regularly reaching out to CEO Ted Sarandos and his spouse Nicole Avant with personal gifts ranging from handwritten letters to flowers, and even jars of her As Ever jam. One insider said the tactic isn’t working and, in fact, the ploy has “become annoying”.

READ MORE: Meghan Markle mocked after her three-word plea during Australia tourREAD MORE: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ‘enormously upset Queen’ over ‘wasted opportunity’

The source said: “To some, it comes off as too much — and honestly, it’s not working. If anything, it’s becoming annoying. But Meghan believes it’s necessary. In her mind, this is how you repair — and secure — a relationship.”

They were speaking to royal journalist Rob Shuter, whose Substack page explores Meghan’s apparent determination to win over the Netflix team again. Another insider told the reporter: “It’s constant — cards, gifts, deeply personal messages. She’s making sure they feel valued, remembered, and appreciated.”

Mother-of-two Meghan was snapped with the company’s CEO at a party in Montecito. The pictures appear to show the Duchess’s friendship with the Netflix boss is continuing, even though the streamer is no longer involved in the As Ever lifestyle brand, and with the CEO no longer following Meghan or As Ever on Instagram.

In an official statement, Netflix said, “Meghan’s passion for elevating everyday moments in beautiful yet simple ways inspired the creation of the As Ever brand, and we are glad to have played a role in bringing that vision to life. As it was always intended, Meghan will continue growing the brand and take it into its next chapter independently.”

The brand, which is well known for its jams, was launched by the Duchess just last year, and was financially supported by Netflix, in a separate deal to that of her TV content.

It was reported last month Meghan may returning to acting, having been on the screen since she was 20. Meghan is best known for her role in Suits, a legal drama series, in which the star played Rachel Zane for seven seasons. The actress left in 2018, the year in which she married Prince Harry and officially became part of the British royal family.

In his first public hearing, Donald Trump’s nominee for Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh faced several rounds of questions about his loyalty to the president as Trump looks to reshape a powerful global economic institution.

Trump has pushed for criminal investigations into current chair Jerome Powell over renovations at the central bank’s home in Washington, D.C., while the president continues to demand lower interest rates even as fuel prices surge with the U.S. war with Iran that has upended global markets. Warsh has denied that his nomination hinged on the president’s demands, but he repeatedly dodged questions from the Senate Banking Committee about Trump’s politicized overhaul of the Fed.

Follow for the latest from the Trump administration

3:45 p.m. — Kennedy grilled by Republican and Democratic senators over women’s health

Trump’s Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came under fire from Democratic lawmakers last week over disparities in Black maternal health that he appeared to dismiss. Today, he’s hearing from Republican and Democratic women over threats to reproductive healthcare and how the administration’s gutting of federal funding has threatened women’s health.

“The administration’s emphasis on canceling diversity-related grants has resulted in less research aimed at women’s health,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins said during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. “It is well established that disparities in women’s health exist.”

“You’re right,” Kennedy said. “We have the worst maternal health outcomes of any of the Western countries and Black women are 2.6 times more likely. A college-educated Black woman is two and a half times more likely to die from maternal health mortality than a college-educated white woman.”

Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin pressed Kennedy on the administration’s threats to birth control and widely used anti-abortion drugs that are also used to treat miscarriages.

Asked if he has talked with officials about screening for mifepristone in wastewater, Kennedy said he wants the government to look for “pharmaceutical drug artifacts” in water.

He said he has “no plans to do that at the moment” when it comes to screening wastewater to track the use of abortion drugs.

2 p.m. — RFK defends Trump response to measles outbreaks

Kennedy wrapped up the first of two congressional hearings on Tuesday as the nation’s top health official justifies his budget to lawmakers and defends his chaotic year in office.

In front of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Tuesday morning, the vaccine skeptic defended the administration’s response to a surge in measles outbreaks within the last year, saying that low vaccination rates predated his time in office. There have been more than 1,700 measles cases in the U.S. so far this year.

Next, Kennedy will appear before a Senate appropriations subcommittee to review his agency’s budget request, which would slash the agency by 12 percent as lawmakers wrestle with changes to vaccine policy, rising healthcare costs and the loss of thousands of public health employees.

12:35 p.m. — Warsh dodges questions on Trump trying to fire Lisa Cook and Powell

The president’s attempt to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook “would weaken, if not shatter, the independence of the Federal Reserve,” according to Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Warsh said it wouldn’t be “appropriate” to weigh in when asked by Sen. Angela Alsobrooks whether he would defend his potential future colleague.

“If I stand for anything it’s that the Fed should stay in its lane,” he told the Senate Banking Committee.

A legal challenge over Trump’s attempt to remove Cook from the board is pending before the Supreme Court. Warsh said “it’s not appropriate for me to weigh in on that” as he “could be a party to that matter.”

Warsh also avoided answering whether he agrees that the laws requires Powell to remain as chair until his replacement is confirmed.

Powell’s term as chair ends May 15, and his term as a board member ends January 31, 2028..

12:08 p.m. — Warsh denies Trump ever asked him to lower interest rates

While Trump repeatedly demands the Federal Reserve lower interest rates, Warsh denied throughout his sworn testimony that the president ever personally instructed him to do so.

“The president never asked me to commit to interest rate cuts,” Warsh said under questioning from Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego. “He didn’t ask for it, he didn’t demand it, he didn’t require it, and nor would I have done so.”

Warsh, a former Morgan Stanley banker who served as a Fed governor during the 2008 financial crisis, would likely be the wealthiest Fed chair if confirmed. According to financial disclosures, his fortune tops more than $100 million, including assets in AI and cryptocurrency.

Warsh told the committee that the Fed’s independence in setting interest rates is “essential” — but before the hearing, Trump told CNBC that he would be disappointed if Warsh doesn’t immediately cut rates.

Trump to read Bible passage one week after posting AI image of himself as Jesus

The president will virtually participate in the “America Reads the Bible” event Tuesday evening and read a passage from the Old Testament roughly one week after he drew bipartisan ire for posting an AI-generated image of himself as a Jesus Christ-like figure.

Read more:

11:40 a.m. — Warren’s questions into Warsh’s alleged Epstein ties follow DOJ files release

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s questions about Warsh’s alleged ties to dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were previewed in her letter to Trump’s Federal Reserve chair nominee last month, when she asked for details about the extent of his connections to the wealthy and well-connected abuser.

Emails sent to or from an account associated with Epstein released as part of the Justice Department’s publication of millions of files stemming from investigations showed that Warsh and his wife were invited to events that Epstein helped organize. It’s unclear whether they attended, and he has not been accused of wrongdoing.

In a series of heated exchanges with Warren, Warsh said he would divest $100 million in investments but refused to answer whether they involved Epstein, China orTrump and his companies.

“Sounds like your fight might not be with me, but with the Office of Government Ethics,” Warsh said.

Warren, testing Warsh’s “independence and courage” against political interference, then asked him point blank whether he believes Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

“Um, we try to keep politics if I’m confirmed out of the Federal Reserve,” he said. “Senator, I believe that this body certified that election many years ago.”

“That’s not the question I’m asking,” Warren fired back.

Asked if there was anything Warsh disagreed with Trump about, he said he didn’t think he came from “central casting.”

If he did, he would be “older, grayer” and smoking a cigar, he said.

Warren, dismissively, called his answer “cute.”

“If you don’t answer the questions, you don’t have the courage and you don’t have the independence,” she said.

11:15 a.m. — Key Republican will confirm Warsh if DOJ drops Powell probe

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who has put his critical vote supporting Warsh on hold over Justice Department investigations into Powell, blasted DOJ over the probe but signaled he’s more than willing to support his nomination.

“If we put everybody in prison in federal government that had had a budget go over, we’d have to reserve an area roughly the size of Texas for a penal colony,” Tillis said. “The problem that I have here is that we had some U.S. attorney … thinking it would be cute to bring Chair Powell under an investigation just a few months before the position was going to be open.”

He urged DOJ to “get rid of this investigation so I can support your nomination.”

The only thing he found to be “the least bit odd” about Warsh is that he has “never seen an episode of Seinfeld.”

Pete Hegseth cancels ‘absurd’ flu vaccine requirement for ‘brave warriors’ in military

American service members will no longer be required to get a yearly flu shot under a new Defense Department policy described by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as an effort to “restore freedom and strength to our joint force.”

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10:25 a.m. — Warren says installing Trump’s ‘sock puppet’ is a political tactic to ‘artificially juice the economy before midterms’

Warren, the committee’s top Democrat, warned that the president’s attempt to install a “sock pocket” at the Fed would be an “invitation for corruption and economic catastrophe.”

Trump has presided over “one economic failure after another,” with plummeting consumer sentiment and surging costs on fuel, housing and everyday goods in the wake of his “chaotic tariffs” and the Iran war, she said in her opening remarks.

With a dire economic outlook, Trump has “repeatedly and illegally attempted to take over the Fed” to solve his political problems, including installing a “sock poppet” to “artificially juice the economy” before midterm elections, she said.

“The Senate should not be aiding and abetting Trump’s takeover of the Fed,” said Warren, calling Warsh’s potential confirmation an “invitation for corruption and economic catastrophe.”

Stockton Council is considering a request from Cumbria Waste Recycling Ltd is to repurpose an existing industrial site to handle both hazardous and non-hazardous waste, including its treatment, temporary storage and transfer.

They intend to change their existing facilities at Seal Sands near Billingham into a “hazardous waste transfer and treatment facility which will include imports of both hazardous and non-hazardous liquid and solid wastes for treatment, temporary storage and transfer”.

The 1.85-hectare area is on the site of a former chemical processing and production facility.

Stephenson Halliday Ltd has submitted a screening request on behalf of Cumbria Waste Recycling (CWR), for the council to make a “judgment on the likelihood of the project giving rise to significant environmental effects”.

It says in its request: “CWR intend to repurpose much of the existing facility for the purposes of establishing a hazardous waste transfer and treatment facility.

This facility will receive, bulk, and treat both hazardous and non-hazardous waste arising from industrial customers within the Tees Valley area, as well as niche waste streams from specialist operators nationwide.

The request adds: “Under the proposed development, much of the existing site will be retained and repurposed for the purposes of waste storage, bulking, and processing. A new weighbridge will be installed on site for the acceptance of waste. The final design of the facility has yet to be determined.”

The developer says waste would be delivered by road, sampled, analysed then either accepted and stored, rejected and returned, or put into quarantine until discrepancies can be resolved.

“The site is fully capable of safely and securely accommodating hazardous wastes of differing properties within separate, dedicated areas,” says the request.

It says the development mostly involves accepting, bulking and transferring waste, “with almost negligible levels of hazardous waste chemical treatment planned for the future”.

It says none of the principal operations involve chemical treatment of waste, though the company is “exploring the treatment of small quantities of specialist waste”.

Wastes would be stored in five areas – the main warehouse, a flammable waste storage area, a secure storage area or two yards.

“Depending upon the nature of the waste, the site will facilitate waste treatments on suitable, compatible wastes in order to separate, bulk and repackage the waste for transfer offsite to a suitably licensed waste management facility where the waste undergoes additional treatment, is subject to recovery or is subject to disposal,” the developer said.

It is proposed that the facility will deal with about 90,000 tonnes of waste per year for bulking and transfer, about 50,000 tonnes for producing waste-derived fuel, and about 15,000 tonnes of mixed oil and water in liquid wastes. About 10 HGVs would access the facility from Seal Sands Road per day between 6am and 6pm.

The statement adds: “Vehicle movements to and from the site will be limited to normal daytime operating hours and restricted to a 5mph speed limit when on site.

“Waste treatment, including bulking of wastes, will take place inside enclosed tanks and enclosed buildings. The site is constructed of impermeable surfaces with a contained drainage system, which would contain any spillage and prevent its discharge into the environment.”

The developer says the proposed facility “would not result in any significant landscape and visual impacts” and “there will be no adverse traffic and transport impacts”, nor significant impact from noise, dust or smells. It says the treatment facility would employ about 15 people full-time and would support local businesses, suppliers and the local economy.

It adds: “The nature of the operations and variety of wastes to be accepted at the site means that odour may be generated.

“However, the emission of odour will be controlled via an odour management plan that has been prepared as part of the environmental permitting regime, which sets out how odours will be prevented and minimised.”

It asserts the proposed development would make “relatively minimal changes” to an existing industrial site, with no nearby residents which could be affected. It argues the plan will not need an environmental impact assessment in the planning process.

Trump claimed he did not want to extend the ceasefire hours before doing so

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US President Donald Trump has extended the ceasefire in Iran once more, announcing the move just hours before the deadline was due to expire after he was reportedly urged to “hold our attack”.

The President released a statement claiming the extension was necessary because the “Government of Iran is seriously fractured”. Trump had previously told Iran that the “whole country is going to get blown up“.

Posting on Truth Social, Mr Trump wrote: “Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal.

“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.”

This post comes just hours after Trump declared the US military was “raring to go” ahead with fresh strikes on Tehran if progress was not made in the Pakistan talks. Speaking with CNBC, the US leader insisted he did not want to extend the two-week truce.

“I don’t want to do that. We don’t have that much time,” he said, adding, “We’ve taken out their navy, we’ve taken out their air force, we’ve taken out their leaders.”

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There are now just eight celebrity contestants remaining on the ITV reality show

I’m a Celebrity viewers were “heartbroken” as Beverley Callard made a shock exit from the jungle.

The Coronation Street actress had to leave the ITV reality show on medical grounds after becoming unwell.

In February this year she revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, telling fans she was in the “early stages”. However, the show was filmed last September.

As she left the jungle, Bev told her surprised campmates that medics had said she had to leave the series.

“Hi guys, I’ve just got something to tell you all,” they said. “I didn’t feel very well this morning… and the medics have advised I can’t return to camp. I’ve got to go home.” “I don’t want to go,” Bev added. “I’m absolutely gutted. I wanted to finish.”

READ MORE: I’m a Celebrity fans fuming as two stars forced to leave ITV showREAD MORE: I’m A Celeb’s Ashley Roberts breaks silence on David Haye and Adam Thomas feud

The unexpected withdrawal means eight contestants remain in the competition, where they will vie to be crowned an I’m a Celebrity ‘legend’ during Friday’s (April 24) live final.

The rest of the campers were left reeling from the news, which came not long after David Haye and Gemma Collins exited the jungle, with Adam Thomas breaking down in tears in the Bush Telegraph.

Viewers were also upset, with one posting on X: “Feel so sorry for Bev bless her, she has been amazing!!”

“Bev crying is gonna make me cry,” said another. “Aw my heart’s breaking for Bev,” another fan wrote on the platform, which was formerly Twitter.

Another said that seeing the star in tears was “heartbreakng” and others posted heartbroken emojis on social media.

“I can’t deal with I’m a Celeb,” admitted another viewer on X, adding a string of crying emojis.

“Devastated over Bev, she is a queen,” said another. “That was really sad, Beverley going,” admitted someone else, as others noted that she had come actross as a “lovely person” during her stint in the camp.

“So gutted,” said another viewer, as somebody else posted: “What a woman.”

I’m a Celebrity… South Africa airs on ITV.

A San José teen is behind bars after prosecutors charged with murder in the death of his two-year-old foster brother, alleging the toddler was repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted after being placed in a foster home earlier this year.

The suspect, whose name was not revealed, was 17 at the time of the alleged abuse of Jaxon Juarez. The toddler died on April 9, just days after police found his “small, bruised and battered body” on Easter Sunday at the home where the suspect lived. An official cause of death has not been released.

The suspect, who is also Jaxon’s cousin, according to KQED, is currently in juvenile court, but District Attorney Jeff Rosen is seeking to have the case transferred to adult court. He recently turned 18, officials said.

“The rape and murder of a child are two of the most serious crimes that we prosecute,” Rosen said after the suspect’s first court appearance. “These crimes should be heard in our most serious criminal courts.”

The suspect was initially charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, including forced sodomy, but on Monday, prosecutors added counts including murder, child assault causing death and additional sexual assault allegations. Among them, he is accused of placing a hair tie around the toddler’s neck, causing significant injury.

Jaxon had been living with a relative, Bridget Michelle Martinez, the suspect’s mother, for only a few weeks before his death. Prosecutors said they are continuing to investigate whether additional charges may be filed against others, including potential accountability within the county system.

“This is not the first time that this has happened,” Rosen said. “People in the public, and myself as the DA, would like to know who is responsible criminally, civilly, morally, ethically, systemically.

“Why are horrible and tragic crimes happening to children in the care and custody of the Department of Family and Children’s Services over and over and over again?” he added.

Jaxon is the third child to die in recent years while under the supervision of Santa Clara County’s Department of Family and Children’s Services, according to Rosen as reported by KQED.

“This is the third child in the past couple of years under the care and custody of the Department of Family and Children Services who has been murdered,” Rosen said. “Change needs to come, and it needs to come fast – and it needs to happen now.”

County Spokesperson Peter Gallotta told ABC7 in a statement the Department of Family and Children Services is conducting its own investigation while requesting that the California Department of Social Services undertake its own.

“The county is committed to swiftly investigating every aspect of this horrific tragedy and publicly sharing the results of these investigations when available and to the extent allowable by law,” he said.

Both San José police and county officials are investigating Jaxon’s death, and the state Department of Social Services has been asked to conduct an independent review.

Before his death, Jaxon had lived with his parents until his mother, Brianna Burton, died last year. He then entered the foster system and then was placed with a maternal grandparent. The grandparent was ordered to bring the child to South Bay for regular visits with his father, a requirement that prevented the grandparent from continuing to serve as a guardian, KQED reported.

Family members say they had asked for Jaxon to be placed with relatives in Arizona but were denied. In February, Jaxon was transferred to live with Martinez, despite records showing that she was convicted of felony child endangerment in 2014. It remains unclear whether the department was aware of her history or how the placement was approved.

“It is completely unacceptable,” Jaxon’s aunt, Riley Wallace, said last week. “They did not protect a child, and that’s their job, that’s what they took the child for, to protect him. And they failed him so terribly.”

Wallace said the family plans to sue, arguing Jaxon should never have been placed in the home.

“He did not deserve this,” said Evangeline Dominguez-Estrada, a friend of Jaxon’s late mother, speaking outside court. “He deserved to be protected. He deserved to be cared for. Every child deserves that. They need us.”

The suspect is scheduled to return to court May 21, when a judge will decide whether the case should be moved to adult court.

The fairytale of Leicester City winning the Premier League at odds of 5000/1 is one of the greatest stories ever seen in English football.

But just a decade on from Claudio Ranieri’s men making history and Andrea Bocelli performing Nessun Dorma as they lifted an improbable title, the Foxes will find themselves playing League One next season after their relegation from the Championship was confirmed.

Leicester had to beat promotion-chasing Hull City on Tuesday to keep their slim survival chances alive, but a 2-2 draw at the King Power Stadium means they will drop down to the third tier for just the second time in their 121-year league history.

It confirms a remarkable fall from grace for the 2015-16 Premier League champions, who were hit with a six-point deduction earlier this season for breaching financial rules. The club had bid to overturn the penalty, but an independent appeal board upheld the punishment.

Leicester are the first former champions of England to drop into the third tier since Leeds United were relegated to League One in 2007. The Foxes were relegated from the Premier League for the second time in three years last season, but this has been a troubled campaign with just one win in their last 18 Championship fixtures.

Leicester had more success following their Premier League title victory and reached the Champions League quarter-finals the following season. Under Brendan Rodgers, Leicester won the FA Cup for the first time in 2021 when they defeated Chelsea at Wembley, and came close to a return to the Champions League, finishing fifth two years in a row.

They paid the price for a dismal 2022-23 season and were relegated to the Championship, seven years on from lifting the title, with Everton staying up ahead of them on the final day. They bounced straight back, winning the Championship under Enzo Maresca, but were relegated again last season, with Ruud van Nistelrooy unable to stop their slide.

They appointed QPR boss Marti Cifuentes before the start of the season but he was sacked in January and their form has not improved under his replacement Gary Rowett. Even without the six-point deduction, Leicester would still be in a survival scrap with Blackburn Rovers and would be two points from safety with two games remaining.

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When evolutionary biologist Joseph Popp coded the first documented piece of ransomware in 1989, he had little idea it would become a major criminal business model capable of bringing economies to their knees.

Popp, who worked for the World Health Organization at the time, wanted to warn people about the dangers of ignoring health warnings, poor sexual hygiene and (human) virus transmission.

He sent out 20,0000 floppy discs that, when loaded, flashed up a demand for money to regain files that had supposedly been encrypted (in fact, it was just their file names). He was later arrested and charged with 11 counts of blackmail, but declared mentally unfit to stand trial.

In 1996, two Columbia University computer scientists published a paper explaining how criminals could use more sophisticated versions of Popp’s scheme to mount large-scale extortion operations. At the heart of this was malicious software that could be used to encrypt, block access to or steal a person or organisation’s files and data.

However, two preconditions still had to be met for ransomware to become a feasible criminal business: communication channels that were difficult to monitor, and a payments process outside financial regulation.

The Tor protocol, released by US intelligence services to protect their covert communications, solved the first problem in 2004. Cryptocurrencies solved the second – in particular, when bitcoin cash machines started appearing in North American cities from 2013.

Today, artifical intelligence makes malware coding and crafting convincing phishing-emails in any language simple. And the latest model in Anthropic’s AI system, Claude Mythos, recently proved more effective at hacking into computer systems than humans.

As an expert in extortive crime, I am increasingly concerned about public and political apathy to the threats posed by ransomware. To better understand these, it’s worth tracing its evolution over the past two decades – and how improvements in computer security and law enforcement, plus changes in data regulation, have led to new criminal strategies each time.

Cut out the middlemen

The first generation, which came to global attention in the mid-2010s, was known as “commodity ransomware”. A pioneering example, Cryptolocker, was developed by Russia-based hackers who infiltrated hundreds of thousands of computers, seeking to cut out the middlemen previously needed to commit financial fraud. They proved that a large majority of their victims would happily pay a small ransom to restore data that had been locked by their malware.

As both competent and incompetent hackers piled into this new market, victims shared information about rogue operators and put them out of business. This led to the second generation of ransomware such as Ryuk, which emerged in 2018.

In this phase, criminals abandoned the indiscriminate “spray-and-pray” approach in favour of targeting individual cash-rich businesses. They would set an individual ransom, negotiate with the company, and even offer to help with decryption if paid. Fast-rising ransoms more than compensated for this increased administrative effort.

In response, many companies began investing in multi-factor authentication, better threat monitoring, advance warning systems and software patches for known vulnerabilities.

However, these security benefits were soon offset by the impact of COVID on work practices across the world. The pandemic led to widespread remote working, with many people using unsecured devices and connections that were vulnerable to cyber-attack.

A multibillion-dollar industry

The next ransomware innovation was driven by the emergence of back-up systems that enabled companies to restore encrypted files without the criminals’ help. This was coupled with the emergence of tighter data privacy regulation such as GDPR in Europe and the UK.

Invented in 2019, third-generation ransomware weaponised these regulations, which threatened firms with massive fines if confidential data about clients or staff was revealed. The criminal gangs now sought out and exfiltrated an organisation’s most sensitive files, then threatened to publicise them through dedicated dark web leak sites.

This so-called double-extortion model – encrypting an organisation’s data while threatening to make it public – brought many businesses back to the negotiation table.

Ransomware had become a multibillion-dollar industry – with the Conti gang, sheltered by Russia and employing hundreds of people, among the key players setting new records for ransomware demands. Its attacks on critical infrastructure and hospitals saw it sanctioned by the UK government in 2023.

This new approach forced many governments to row back on imposing hefty fines for data breaches, since many were the result of criminal attacks. Meanwhile, new initiatives by law enforcement – supported by the private sector – targeted and broke up the largest and most egregious ransomware gangs.

Today’s fourth generation of ransomware, building on the latest AI technology, looks nimbler and slimmed-down in comparison. Anyone who gains access to a network can lease weapons-grade malware on the dark web without forming long-term ties with a particular gang.

Advanced AI-based hacking tools make ransomware accessible to many more criminals and politically motivated hacktivists. And around one-quarter of breaches still result in ransom payments. For criminals sheltered by their governments, only the digital infrastructure is at risk of being taken down by western law enforcement.

Lessons not learned

While coverage of Claude Mythos suggests even the most sophisticated cyber defences could now be vulnerable, the troubling reality is that many individuals and organisations are still using out-of date, unpatched or only partially upgraded software. This means even early-generation ransomware techniques are still lucrative.

While Popp sent out his floppy discs to promote better sexual hygiene, today’s poor cyberhygiene is leaving many public and private networks open to malware attacks. The intended lesson of his original ransomware caper – be vigilant and properly heed health warnings – has still only been partially learnt in the digital world.

Many western societies appear to have grown accepting of criminals leaching on business conducted on the internet. Not even a steady stream of human fatalities, caused by attacks on hospitals and medical providers, has generated the level of response required to stamp out this dangerous threat.

The hope that governments sheltering cybercriminals can be encouraged (or forced) to stop them targeting critical national infrastructure appears increasingly fragile amid current geopolitical tensions. At all levels of society, we need to get smarter about cyber defence.