The secret life of a waitress: my nine nightmare diners – from flirts to complainers

Are influencers really the biggest problem facing waiting staff? Not compared with the customer who demanded I pick up her dog’s poo ...

Influencers have had a bad time of it at restaurants recently. There they are, just trying to record a quick video and take a few pictures of their lunch, and restaurateur Jeremy King (of the Ivy and the Wolseley in London) goes and writes an article saying they’re ruining the dining experience of “bona fide guests” – something he says staff are “desperately trying to stop”. I’ve read pieces calling TikTok the end of the London restaurant scene. Friends’ parents have even said they would get up and leave if they were sitting next to anyone filming their meal.

This surprises me. I have worked as a waitress in restaurants for more than five years, a job I love, and the joys of which most often come from the customers I serve. Of course, for every 10 great customers, you’re bound to get one that’s not so great – I’ve come across my fair share of those.

Published: February 26, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Any other child would have died’: the miraculous survival of Nada Itrab

After a nine-year-old girl was kidnapped and taken from Spain to Bolivia, authorities feared the worst. They found her in the rainforest nine months later – but that wasn’t the end of her ordeal

On 27 August 2013, a tall, spirited nine-year-old girl with long, well-brushed hair boarded an overnight coach in Barcelona. Nada Itrab was bright and observant. At school, she regularly came top of her class. Even now, she carried a notebook, eager to record the things she would discover on this trip. She had been given a camera, too – a cheap, lilac-coloured digital model which, since she was unused to luxuries, seemed to her like a treasure.

In eight hours, Nada would be at Barajas airport in the Spanish capital, Madrid. She would take her first flight, heading for Bolivia’s largest city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra. To her, the trip was an adventure, like something from the storybooks that she read at her local library in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city just south of Barcelona. The daughter of undocumented immigrants from Morocco, Nada had lived there since she was four.

Published: February 26, 2026, 5:00 am

Ancient stepwells brought back to life as India begins to run out of water

Centuries-old wells restored to provide drinking water as parts of the country head towards “day zero” when no water will be available

A loud cheer and sounds of clapping reverberated around Bansilalpet, a neighbourhood in Hyderabad, when the first trickle of clean water dribbled out of the ground. After an 18-month effort to clear out 3,000 tonnes of rubbish and restore the stone walls and adjacent area, the 17th-century Bansilalpet stepwell had become a source of clean drinking water for the first time in four decades.

“It was such a joyous moment to see water collecting into the stepwell after clearing 40 years of garbage,” says Hajira Adeeb, a 45-year-old resident of Bansilalpet, who grew up seeing the well become transformed from the community’s water source to a dumping ground. “I visit almost every day. The area is clean and lit up in the evenings. I enjoy sitting there.”

Published: February 26, 2026, 5:00 am

A Hollywood ‘heir’ made horrific abuse claims against four industry titans. How did he end up in prison?

Rovier Carrington thought his cases against MTV and Paramount executives should have been the biggest of the #MeToo era. Instead, they raised unsettling questions about victimhood

One unseasonably warm afternoon in February 2023, in a very brown New York City courtroom, Rovier Carrington did the inconceivable: he admitted to a lie. On that day, the aspiring screenwriter told a federal judge that he had altered evidence to support his legal claim of being systematically raped and blacklisted by a bevy of Hollywood powerbrokers.

His 11th-hour capitulation came as a shock.

Published: February 25, 2026, 12:00 pm

Trump delivered the longest State of the Union in history … and ran out of steam | Ted Widmer

The State of the Union address has been in decline for decade as a TV spectacle, and Trump probably hastened that trend

In fulfillment of clause 1 of section 3 in article II of the US constitution, Donald Trump duly gave Congress “Information of the State of the Union” last night.

Information … and more information. At an hour and 47 minutes, this was the longest State of the Union address in history. As he has so often done in the past, Trump bobbed and weaved impressively (“the weave” is his own term for his meandering speaking style). He zigged and zagged, taunting Democrats for much of the speech (he called Zohran Mamdani a “communist” and took pot shots at Democrats throughout the night), while claiming to be a unifier when the mood struck.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:25 pm

Reality bites: why the wildest TV shows of the 2000s are haunting us now

A string of documentaries are taking aim at problematic millennial hits such as The Biggest Loser and America’s Next Top Model – but who’s to blame?

Caution: the 2000s have become a crime scene. The reality television my generation once watched as escapist comfort – built hastily and clumsily, before anyone quite knew the rules – is now being dusted for fingerprints by a younger cohort fluent in the language of harm, certain that cruelty was the point. The past six months have brought a spate of brooding postmortems revisiting The Biggest Loser, To Catch a Predator and America’s Next Top Model – dodgy network TV experiments that monetized humiliation at scale.

And while the critiques are frequently justified, they’re also conveniently calibrated for a judgmental media landscape where retrospective outrage doubles as a growth strategy. “Gen Z wants to get in a time machine and fix the errors of 20 years ago,” says Kristen Warner, a Cornell University media studies professor. “There was no roadmap. Reality TV was a wild west, and people were just doing the most outlandish things to keep it going.”

Published: February 25, 2026, 12:12 pm

Cuba says it killed heavily armed exiles who attacked from US-registered speedboat

Rare clash off island’s coast took place amid US oil embargo and heightened tensions between two countries

Cuban forces killed four exiles and wounded six others who sailed into its waters onboard a Florida-registered speedboat and opened fire on a Cuban patrol, the country’s government said, at a time of heightened tensions with the US.

Cuba’s interior ministry said the group was comprised of anti-government Cubans, some of whom were previously wanted for plotting attacks. They came from the US dressed in camouflage and armed with assault rifles, handguns, homemade explosives, ballistic vests and telescopic sights, it said.

Published: February 26, 2026, 3:21 am

Vance says Minnesota’s Medicaid funds halted as part of Trump’s ‘war on fraud’

Vice-president makes announcement with Mehmet Oz, who says other states will be next after Minnesota

JD Vance announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” more than a quarter-billion dollars in Medicaid reimbursements to the state of Minnesota, escalating Donald Trump’s newly announced “war on fraud”.

Vance said the action was to ensure Minnesota was “a good steward of the American people’s tax money”, part of its crackdown on the state following a fraud scandal linked to residents of the Somali community in Minneapolis, which prompted the administration to send thousands of federal immigration agents into Minneapolis and that resulted in the deaths of two US citizens and widespread protests.

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:09 am

Iran enters critical nuclear talks with US insisting deal is within reach

Tehran insists deal is possible if Trump abides by preconditions agreed with Witkoff and Kushner

Iran enters critical talks on its nuclear programme with the US on Thursday, insisting a deal is in reach as long as Washington sticks by its willingness to concede Iran’s symbolic right to enrich uranium, allow Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and not to impose controls on Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

The three preconditions for success are seen as critical by Iranian diplomats, but it remains unclear whether Trump accepts these parameters.

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:49 pm

Nearly blind refugee abandoned by US border patrol found dead in Buffalo

Investigation under way after man was dropped off five miles from home but family wasn’t notified, officials say

A nearly blind Burmese refugee who was abandoned by border patrol agents has been found dead in Buffalo, New York, city officials confirmed.

Nurul Amin Shah Alam, 56, had been missing since 19 February, when he was dropped off by border patrol following his release from Erie county holding center, according to the Investigative Post.

Published: February 25, 2026, 10:52 pm

Maine university pulls support from conference on Palestine, citing Trump sanctions

Organizers scramble for new venue after University of Southern Maine cites sanctions over Francesca Albanese’s virtual talk

The University of Southern Maine abruptly revoked access to an on-campus venue days before a conference about Palestine was to take place there, citing the participation in the program of an individual under US sanctions and following pressure from local legislators.

More than 300 participants have registered to attend the “Consequence of Palestine” conference, which was slated to include remote participation from Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, who has been under sanction by the Trump administration since last year.

Published: February 25, 2026, 7:05 pm

Jimmy Lai’s fraud conviction overturned by Hong Kong court in rare legal win for activist

Appellate court quashes convictions linked to lease violations but Lai may still spend rest of his life in prison

A Hong Kong appellate court on Thursday overturned fraud convictions against the media mogul Jimmy Lai, a rare victory in the prominent pro-democracy activist’s legal battles.

Lai, 78, an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist party who founded the now defunct Apple Daily, will stay in prison because weeks ago he was sentenced to 20 years after being convicted in another case brought under a China-imposed national security law.

Published: February 26, 2026, 3:54 am

Larry Summers to resign from Harvard after Epstein files revelations

News of former Harvard president’s resignation comes ‘in connection with ongoing review’ of Epstein files

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Larry Summers, former president of Harvard University, will resign from teaching at the end of the academic year, a spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian.

The news of his formal resignation comes “in connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government”, a Harvard spokesperson, Jason Newton, said in a statement.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:52 pm

Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv to accelerate placement of anti-drone nets across frontline

Defence minister says goal is to cover 4,000km of roads this year; Kyiv and other cities under Russian attack ahead of fresh Ukraine-US talks. What we know on day 1,464

Published: February 26, 2026, 3:41 am

Christina Applegate reveals she is largely confined to bed due to multiple sclerosis

Actor, who was diagnosed with MS in 2021, says taking her 15-year-old daughter to school has become her ‘favourite thing to do’

Christina Applegate has revealed that she is now largely confined to her bed, five years after she was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis.

In an interview with People magazine before the release of her memoir, the 54-year-old actor said she spends a lot of her days in bed due to the pain that comes with movement.

The Guardian will run an extract from Christina Applegate’s memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, on 28 February

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:56 am

Trump news at a glance: Democrats say president failing to protect Americans amid State of the Union fallout

US president faced more scathing criticism, a day after his address. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 25 February at a glance

Donald Trump continued to face scathing criticism for his State of the Union on Wednesday, with senior Democrats accusing him of failing to protect Americans.

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said Democrats were right to remain seated when Trump called on the audience to stand if they believed in protecting US citizens over undocumented immigrants.

Published: February 26, 2026, 1:00 am

US hockey star Hilary Knight responds to Trump’s ‘distasteful joke’ about women’s team

• Captain says controversy overshadows Olympic gold win

• Trump quipped about inviting US women to White House

• Knight says there is respect and support with men’s team

Hilary Knight, the captain of the US women’s ice hockey team, has responded to comments made by Donald Trump after the Americans won gold at the Winter Olympics, calling the president’s quip a “distasteful joke”.

After the US men’s ice hockey team won gold on Sunday, Trump called into the locker-room celebration and invited the players to be his guests at Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

Published: February 25, 2026, 10:00 pm

‘Nobel prize for fiction’: Trump’s State of the Union provokes polarized reactions

Democrats accuse president’s address of litany of lies as Republicans hail his bullish claims about year back in office

Congressional Democrats lined up on Tuesday night to call Donald Trump a liar and Republicans said America had never been greater. The country’s longest-ever State of the Union address had ended, and the two parties had, again, watched entirely different speeches.

Trump’s address ran for nearly two hours, with the president touching on tariffs, border security, military recruitment and energy production, among other topics. He told the country the economy was booming, inflation was under control and a golden age was at hand, but Democrats were not persuaded.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:18 pm

Ilhan Omar guest arrested for standing at Trump’s State of the Union address

Aliya Rahman, who was dragged out of her car in January by agents, arrested for ‘refusing to obey orders’ to sit down

A guest of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, was arrested by Capitol police during the State of the Union address.

Omar had invited Aliya Rahman, a US citizen and Minneapolis resident who in January was removed from her car and dragged by immigration agents in the city as part of the Trump administration’s increased efforts to arrest and deport alleged undocumented immigrants. The officers had been shouting at her to move.

Published: February 25, 2026, 7:09 pm

Five ways Trump could try to tilt the midterm elections in his favor

With Republicans facing grim poll figures, Trump promised action to influence the vote citing debunked fraud claims

Donald Trump once again railed against imagined fraud in America’s elections on Tuesday during the State of the Union address.

“They want to cheat,” he said of Democrats. “They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that their only way to get elected is to cheat. And we’re going to stop it.”

Published: February 25, 2026, 3:08 pm

‘A devastating force’: how recent Mediterranean storms turned to tragedies

Atmospheric machine-gun has fired storm after deadly storm at the region this year, leaving a trail of widespread destruction

For Andrés Sánchez Barea, in Spain, it was the fear that arose when water started to spurt from plug sockets. For Nelson Duarte, in Portugal, it was the helplessness that hit as violent winds smacked down trees and tore tiles from roofs. For Amal Essuide, in Morocco, it was the reality that dawned when a corpse was pulled onboard a boat in the flooded medina.

Each moment of horror is a fragment of the destruction wrought by an atmospheric machine-gun that in recent weeks has fired storm after storm at the western Mediterranean. Scientists do not know if climate breakdown helped pull the trigger, but research suggests it loaded the chamber with bigger bullets.

Published: February 26, 2026, 5:00 am

Scrubs review – daft gags and volcanic fury bring the medical sitcom back from the dead

Fans of the hit noughties series will be delighted to see the original cast back at Sacred Heart hospital. But this reboot isn’t afraid to move with the times

Bill Lawrence is on a tear. This is the man who gave us Ted Lasso and Shrinking, and who is days away from launching Rooster, the Steve Carell sitcom that HBO already sees as the anchor to its comedy output. At this stage in his career, Lawrence could blow his nose and the contents of his tissue would become a beloved heartwarming comedy series.

So it’s interesting that, of all his available options, Lawrence has instead decided to revive Scrubs. It’s a show with a big footprint – when Friends ended, you could argue that it became the biggest sitcom on Earth – but it still felt very much of its time. It was a medical comedy that not only derived a lot of its laughs from Family Guy-style cutaway skits, back when they counted as new and exciting, but also had more than one character who specialised in baroque cruelty, which doesn’t seem particularly on-brand for Lawrence any more. Ted Lasso would never.

Published: February 26, 2026, 5:00 am

The US men’s hockey team at the State of the Union showed proximity to Trump is never neutral

The newly crowned Olympic champions were warmly greeted by both Republicans and Democrats. They were also used as props by the president

During Tuesday’s State of the Union, Donald Trump welcomed members of the US men’s national hockey team to the House gallery to chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A!”. Trump revealed that Team USA’s goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “What special champions you are,” Trump told the players, who had beaten Canada on Sunday in the gold medal game of the Winter Olympics.

In Trump’s America, proximity is never neutral.

Published: February 25, 2026, 1:09 pm

Tech legend Stewart Brand on Musk, Bezos and his extraordinary life: ‘We don’t need to passively accept our fate’

He was at the heart of 1960s counterculture, then paved the way for the libertarian mindset of Silicon Valley. At 87, Brand is still keen to ensure the world is maintained properly – not just today, but for the next 10,000 years

Stewart Brand thinks big and long. He thinks on a planetary scale – as suggested by the title of his celebrated Whole Earth Catalog – and on the longest of timeframes, as with his Long Now Foundation, which looks forward to the next 10,000 years of human civilisation. He has had a lifelong fascination with the future, and anything that could get us there faster, from space travel to psychedelic drugs to computing. In fact, he was arguably the bridge between the San Francisco counterculture of the 60s and present-day Silicon Valley: in his commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs eulogised the Whole Earth Catalog and Brand’s philosophy, and echoed its farewell mantra: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

You could say that Brand has also lived big and long. He is now 87 years old, in the final chapters of an eventful and adventurous life that has crossed paths with some of the most consequential events and figures of his era. He has been a writer, an editor, a publisher, a soldier, a photojournalist, an LSD evangelist, an events organiser, a future-planning consultant, even a government adviser (to the California governor Jerry Brown in the late 70s). “There was a time when people asked me, ‘What do you do?’ I said, ‘I find things and I found things,’” says Brand, as in he is a founder. He is speaking from a library where he likes to work in Petaluma, California, not far from his houseboat in Sausalito. “I’m always searching for good stuff to recommend, and good people.”

Published: February 25, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘People feel like they’re in on the joke’: the new wave of pseudo-biopics

It’s not about John Bishop, Anna Wintour or Bill Clinton, but … Screen stories about pop stars, actors, sporting heroes or politicians bend fact by steering close to the deeds, or misdeeds, of real celebrities. What’s behind their rise?

Any self-respecting cinemagoer will know the phrase by heart: “The characters and events portrayed in this film are fictitious.” It’s cinema’s ritual boilerplate disclaimer. “Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental and unintentional.”

Lately, however, film-makers have been treating the fine print like a challenge. A clutch of recent releases has taken up a curious middle ground: not quite biography, not quite fiction, but something more slippery in between. Marty Supreme, for instance, spins 1950s table tennis wildcard Marty Reisman into Marty Mauser, borrowing Reisman’s forename and forehand while rewriting the rest. Bradley Cooper’s Is This Thing On? mines the early career of standup comic John Bishop, only to rebrand him as New Yorker Alex Novak. And later this year The Prince, directed by Cameron Van Hoy and written by David Mamet, will refract aspects of Hunter Biden’s life through proxy Parker Scott.

Published: February 25, 2026, 12:29 pm

The rise of rejection sensitive dysphoria: ‘My chest feels like it’s collapsing’

It makes rejection, teasing or criticism feel unbearable, often prompting a strong physical reaction. Sufferers describe life with a condition that is only just starting to be understood

Jenna Turnbull’s chest is tightening. The 36-year-old civil servant, who lives in Cardiff, can picture herself as she speaks: an 11-year-old in her PE kit waiting with the other kids for her lesson to start. “We were outside by the courts waiting to play netball,” she says. “Somebody commented that I had hairy arms, one of the boys.” Her voice wobbles. The incident was clearly juvenile; rationally, she knows that. Yet 25 years on, her embarrassment is still visceral, with the power to cause instant physical discomfort.

She searches for another example of her acute reaction to teasing and recalls a trip to the pub with her friends six years ago. Amid the loud conversation and laughter, a quip was made in the group about her being untidy at home. Or that’s how she perceived it. “About me not keeping on top of the house,” she recalls. The person “was having a laugh. It was just something that was said off the cuff.” Yet while the memory and detail is hazy, the shame she feels about it is not. “That comment still haunts me,” she says. After that pub outing, she started cleaning her house obsessively – to such an extreme that it became one of the symptoms leading to her diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). “I’ve been known to spend four or five hours cleaning my bathroom,” she says.

Published: February 25, 2026, 10:00 am

In the Blink of an Eye review – Pixar director’s long-delayed sci-fi epic falls flat

The director of Finding Nemo and Wall-E has made an ambitious yet entirely baffling mess with the help of Rashida Jones and Kate McKinnon

In the first few minutes of In the Blink of an Eye, director Andrew Stanton’s long-gestating, epoch-spanning sci-fi epic, a Neanderthal man (Jorge Vargas) explores a perilously rocky beach 45,000 years ago. For some reason, he decides to climb one of the larger, steeper rocks – for food? For a view? But he loses his grip and falls backward, landing on the sharp stones below with a sickening, visceral squelch.

That moment is, I think, supposed to convey the fragility of early human existence – one second you’re foraging, the next you’re impaled and/or imperiled – though I couldn’t help but think of the film’s own cursed journey. Shot all the way back in 2023, In the Blink of an Eye is just now arriving on Hulu about three years later after many delays – not unheard of in the relatively glacial world of movie production, though never a good sign, especially considering that Stanton is the creative force behind such sentimental juggernauts as Wall-E and Finding Nemo (as well as several other Pixar movies, plus John Carter). The protracted timeline suggested that it was either going to be tricky and ambitious, a hard-fought journey of space and time, or, more likely, a complete mess.

Published: February 25, 2026, 2:46 pm

Marty Supreme’s ping-pong thrills grip but the theatre plot really smashes it | Chris Wiegand

In Josh Safdie’s film, the worlds of sport and stage are aligned – with the stakes higher for Gwyneth Paltrow’s former screen star, now on Broadway, than Timothée Chalamet’s hotshot

• This article contains spoilers about Marty Supreme

Josh Safdie’s ping-pong nerve-jangler Marty Supreme races through ambition, vanity, humiliation, deception, soaring glory, crushing failure and the deathless allure of an 11th-hour comeback. All of this I recognise from hours of playing table tennis in our local park. But I recognise it, too, from nights at the theatre – not so much the plays themselves, perhaps, rather the stage as a crucible for the careers of those involved. The film’s subplot, about a Broadway play’s fraught opening, becomes an inspired parallel to Marty’s frantic story and Safdie’s wired style matches not just the adrenalised world of a tournament but also the sensation of stepping out on the stage. I’m a sucker for theatre scenes in films and Safdie’s are brief but certainly supreme.

Halfway into the movie, Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Mauser sneaks into New York’s Morosco theatre. That’s a real playhouse – or was, until it got demolished in the 80s. The film is set in 1952, the year that Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea was put on at the Morosco, which would soon have a hit with the premiere of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Those plays about failing marriages find a counterpart in the film’s story of Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), a silver-screen star of the 30s who is now making a risky return to acting in an overheated play bankrolled by her husband, Milton Rockwell.

Published: February 25, 2026, 9:51 am

How did Epstein ensnare so many rich men? By knowing they were entitled and insecure | Emma Brockes

The sex offender could exploit these masters of the universe ​because, despite their privilege, ​they still felt short-changed by life

One of the things that has been frequently puzzled over as the effluent of the Epstein story flows on, is how a college dropout who thought it was cool to do typos managed to persuade the world’s most powerful into his lair. What, precisely, was the nature of his “genius”? Was it blackmail? Was it the social pyramid scheme of using one big name to reel in another? Nothing has come close to explaining it until, with the latest crop of details from the Epstein files, something has become suddenly clear: that it wasn’t the trafficked girls and women who Jeffrey Epstein groomed. The man’s real talent, if we want to call it that, was in the grooming of his cohort of associates.

This isn’t to say, of course, that the men and occasional woman who threw in their lot with a man we must straight-facedly refer to as “the dead paedophile” weren’t culpable. Nonetheless, if you study the huge amount of Epstein-related material, from the New York Times’s deep dive into his finances to the vast cache of correspondence contained in the files, a picture emerges of a man who did the kind of number on his peers that you would more commonly see directed at victims. While multiple survivor testimonies indicate that Epstein regarded the girls and women he trafficked as of such low consequence he didn’t even need to bother to groom them – per Virginia Giuffre’s account, Epstein raped her the first time they met – all of his resources, via a variety of tactics, went into capturing the allegiances of powerful men.

Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist

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Published: February 25, 2026, 3:02 pm

Why food justice isn’t being served in America | Hanna Garth

Advocates often assume communities of color just don’t know any better when it comes to eating healthy

I met the man I’ll call Randy Johnson 13 years ago, as I began research in South Central Los Angeles. I’m an anthropologist who explores how people think about food and use food in their everyday lives. As executive director of a large food justice organization focused on K-12 education throughout the city, Randy was a key source. He talked to me about South Central’s status as a food desert, where its majority Latinx and Black residents had little access to groceries or healthy food. A middle-aged white man, Randy told me of his work in South Central, which centered around encouraging school-age children to eat more fresh vegetables.

He described South Central as a wasteland of sorts. “There is just nothing there,” he said, pointing to the common but false idea that there were no grocery stores there. He then pivoted to talking about the residents. “I see them having almost zero education when it comes to [making healthy eating choices]. They don’t know that what they’re eating is destroying them slowly. It’s just that we, as a society, have failed our citizens to educate them that they shouldn’t be buying the fries every day.”

Hanna Garth is assistant professor of anthropology at Princeton University

Published: February 25, 2026, 2:52 pm

Stephen Lillie on Donald Trump’s State of the Union address – cartoon

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Published: February 25, 2026, 4:45 pm

The Taliban are burning musical instruments in the name of morality. It is an assault on all culture

The sounds of Afghan history are being erased to prevent music’s ‘moral corruption’ of the Afghan people. We can help keep Afghanistan’s music alive. Plus, Eliane Radigue’s deep listening, and the brilliance of Sinners’s score

The horrors of the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan are all-encompassing. New laws that effectively legalise domestic abuse means that every woman in the country now lives with the threat of state-sanctioned violence. In the context of the twin tragedies of the Taliban’s fundamentalist zealotry, and the rest of the world’s silence in the face of their atrocities, the fate of Afghanistan’s cultural life might seem a smaller catastrophe. Yet it’s equivalently devastating.

The recent burning of hundreds of musical instruments and equipment – reported last week on Afghan National Television – is the latest stage of the Taliban morality police’s ongoing mission to destroy all these artefacts. Last week’s pyre included tablas and harmoniums, instruments that are the bedrocks of Afghanistan’s unique tradition of classical music, as well as keyboards and amplifiers.

Published: February 25, 2026, 1:31 pm

Trump has lost the ability to entertain. Sadly, he hasn't lost the ability to offend | Moira Donegan

Throughout the speech, Trump seemed tired. He had difficulty reading from his teleprompter; he gripped the podium with a tightness bordering on desperation

It is one of Donald Trump’s unique talents that he reveals the absurd obsolescence of long-held traditions. In presidential election years, his screaming bloviations on stage make the exercise of gathering the candidates together seem futile. In power, when he divorces facts from policymaking and relies instead on myth and grift to guide his decisions, he renders useless and impotent vast fields of expertise.

When he lies in public, and insists that his fantasies and distortions will dictate the course of government action, he makes those of us in the news business wonder if there’s any point, any more, in gathering and printing the truth.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: February 25, 2026, 6:30 am

Vinícius has last word as Real Madrid wrap up victory over Benfica

Vinícius Júnior ran to the corner and danced again, just as he had done in Lisbon a week ago, but this time all around him there was celebration. There was also relief. With 10 minutes left on a nervous night at the Santiago Bernabéu, he had been set free to put the ball past Anatoliy Trubin and Real Madrid into the last 16 of the Champions League.

Victory was his, 2-1 here, 3-1 on aggregate and well beyond that too, so he set off and shook his hips before the flag the same way he had eight days earlier, fans released from their fears, applauding, a point proved and passage secured. “I’m happy for him: he deserved it,” the Real head coach, Álvaro Arbeloa, said.

Published: February 25, 2026, 10:12 pm

Mauricio Pochettino suddenly has a glut of USMNT options as the World Cup looms

Timing and luck often dictate a team’s success at tournaments. And the co-hosts have players coming into form at just the right time

Bruce Arena once said that if his United States men’s national team had contested the 2006 World Cup a year earlier, the Americans would have done much better than the joyless, winless group stage elimination they suffered through. That team, he felt, had peaked during qualifiers and were past their best – despite being ranked an absurd fourth in the world by Fifa – when the World Cup kicked off.

Four years earlier, when the USMNT stunned the 2002 World Cup by nearly reaching the semi-finals, his side benefited from time’s relentless march, Arena argued. The Americans, cohesive and energized then, upset a golden Portugal generation that had already lost its sheen, 3-2, to spark their run.

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:00 am

Breakaway union stands behind Tara Moore’s $20m legal battle against WTA

• Former British doubles No 1 has same legal firm as PTPA

• The 33-year-old doubles star has always denied doping

The breakaway players’ union that is suing the tours and grand slam tournaments has thrown its weight behind Tara Moore’s $20m (£14.7m) legal battle against the Women’s ­Tennis Association in a new front in the sport’s civil war.

The Guardian has learnt that Moore, a former British No 1 doubles player who this week brought a legal action for negligence against the WTA after being handed a four‑year ban for doping, is using lawyers from the Professional Tennis ­Players Association’s legal partner, King & Spalding.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:50 pm

Pitch Points: Bodø/Glimt give us hope for the future; have Arsenal turned the corner?

The world of soccer throws up no shortage of questions. Today, Graham Ruthven endeavors to answer three of them

The soccer news agenda hasn’t exactly been a picnic recently. Concerns over the hosting of World Cup matches in Mexico. Gianni Infantino cozying up to Donald Trump whenever he can. The fleecing of supporters planning to visit the US this summer. Is all this really worth it? But then there’s Bodø/Glimt.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:38 pm

Among the gangsters, gamblers and high rollers: a master bookie’s life in Las Vegas

In his new memoir, Art Manteris recalls raucous times in Nevada, and explains why the explosion of sports betting in the US presents serious risks

Forty years ago, the New England Patriots played in their first Super Bowl. It ended disastrously for New England, who lost 46-10 to the Chicago Bears. The Bears’ mammoth defensive tackle, William “The Refrigerator” Perry, even got involved in the scoring with a touchdown.

That moment looked like it would cause serious problems for Art Manteris, who at the time ran the sportsbook at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Under Manteris, Caesars had offered odds on whether Perry would score during the game – and, as fans scrambled to back the popular player, the house stood to lose a significant sum if he did. When Perry ran into the end zone, gamblers collected handsomely, to the tune of $250,000. The next day, Manteris was summoned to meet the boss of Caesars, Henry Gluck.

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:00 am

Outrage in Austria after man ordered to pay female footballers €625 each for secretly filming dressing room

• Former official at Altach given suspended prison term

• Player says the sentence ‘leaves me speechless’

A man has been given a seven-month suspended prison sentence and fined €1,200 (£1,046) after being found guilty of taking secret videos and photographs from the changing room, gym and showers of the Altach women’s football team. He was also told to pay the victims €625 each in compensation.

The sentence was handed out in the regional court in Feldkirch, Austria, with the judge saying that it made a huge difference “if one looks at pictures or actually creates them oneself”. The defendant accepted the sentence but the prosecutor may appeal.

Published: February 25, 2026, 10:43 am

Trump’s pick for surgeon general dodges vaccine questions at Senate hearing

Critics concerned as Casey Means, aligned with RFK Jr on vaccine stance, does not have active medical license

Casey Means, Donald Trump’s controversial nominee for US surgeon general, appeared before the Senate health committee on Wednesday for a two‑hour hearing in which she defended her medical credentials, side-stepped direct questions on vaccine guidance, and blamed the country’s chronic‑disease burden on “ultra‑processed foods, industrial chemical exposure, lack of physical activity, chronic stress and loneliness, and over‑medicalization”.

As the nation’s prospective top doctor, Means would be responsible for communicating federal public‑health guidance. In her opening remarks, she said Americans were “angry, exhausted and hurting from preventable diseases” and called for a “great national healing”. Her hearing was postponed in October, after she went into labor hours before she was scheduled to testify.

Published: February 25, 2026, 8:53 pm

FBI raids Los Angeles school district headquarters and superintendent’s home

Federal officials search district chief Alberto Carvalho’s home, but allegations being examined remain unclear

The FBI raided the headquarters of the Los Angeles unified school district, the second largest school district in the US, as well as the home of Alberto Carvalho, the district’s superintendent, federal officials confirmed on Wednesday.

An unnamed source familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press that authorities served warrants that were part of an “ongoing investigation”.

Published: February 25, 2026, 8:04 pm

‘Rest in power, Power’: Wu-Tang Clan collaborator Oliver ‘Power’ Grant dead at 52

Wu-Tang members pay tribute to Grant with GZA saying ‘His passing is a profound loss’ and Method Man posting ‘I am not okay’

Oliver “Power” Grant, a close affiliate and early backer of the hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan who had a hand in many of the group’s albums and business ventures, has died aged 52.

The death was confirmed by Wu-Tang Clan. “Rest in power, Power,” the collective wrote on social media. A cause of death was not revealed.

Published: February 26, 2026, 1:36 am

BBC backlash grows after Bafta racial slur - The Latest

The BBC is under fire over its failure to remove a racial slur shouted by John Davidson, who has Tourette syndrome, from its broadcast of the Bafta awards. Davidson was heard shouting the N-word while two stars of the film Sinners, Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan, were on stage. He said controversy over the incident had left him “distraught” and that he had been assured any offensive words would be edited out. The BBC has apologised for the error and said producers overseeing the coverage did not hear the slur. Lucy Hough is joined by the Guardian’s assistant opinion editor Jason Okundaye – watch on YouTube

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:22 pm

Investigation urged into immigration practices of company owned by Maga donors

Milwaukee city council member calls for inquiry into Uline’s previous ‘shuttle program’ to bring in Mexican workers

A Milwaukee city council member has called for an investigation into the immigration policies at Uline, the office supply company owned by Liz and Richard Uihlein, two of the biggest donors to Maga Republicans in the 2024 election.

The statement by JoCasta Zamarripa, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin secretary of state ahead of November’s election, follows an investigation by the Guardian into Uline’s previous use of a so-called “shuttle program”. It involved the company bringing workers from its facilities in Mexico to staff warehouses at its headquarters in Wisconsin, Florida and Pennsylvania, for weeks and even months at a time, using visas that are meant for workers who are being trained – not working regular full-time jobs.

Published: February 25, 2026, 1:45 pm

Judge orders Greenpeace to pay $345m over Dakota Access pipeline protest

Group says case far from over after being found liable for defamation and other claims brought by energy firm

A North Dakota judge has said he will order Greenpeace to pay damages expected to total $345m in connection with protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline from nearly a decade ago, a figure the environmental group contends it cannot pay.

In court papers filed Tuesday, Judge James Gion said he would sign an order requiring several Greenpeace entities to pay the judgment to pipeline company Energy Transfer. He set that amount at $345m last year in a decision that reduced a jury’s damages by about half, but his latest filing did not specify a final amount.

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:55 pm

Lawyers for US cancer sufferers challenge Bayer’s $7.25bn Roundup settlement deal

Proposed settlement would pay users of glyphosate-based weedkiller who have non-Hodgkin lymphoma $10,000 to $165,000

A group of 14 law firms representing nearly 20,000 plaintiffs is seeking to intervene in Bayer’s proposed class action settlement of Roundup litigation, citing concerns that the deal will not be fair to cancer sufferers.

The group filed both a motion to intervene and a motion for an extension of time for court preliminary approval of the deal in St Louis city circuit court in Missouri late on February 24.

This story is co-published with the New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:23 pm

Twenty-year-old to testify at US trial about harm from social media addiction

Plaintiff says ‘addictive design’ of Meta and YouTube hooked her before she was 10, causing depression and body dysmorphia

For the first time, a jury will hear testimony this week from a young woman who alleges social media companies intentionally create addictive products, harming children. The witness taking the stand, known by her initials KGM, is the lead plaintiff in an expansive lawsuit against Meta – which owns Instagram and Facebook – and YouTube currently at trial in Los Angeles.

KGM, who is now 20, alleges that she became addicted to social media apps before she was 10 and would spend hours every day scrolling through photos and videos. This led to years of mental health issues, according to her lawyers and court documents.

Published: February 26, 2026, 1:11 am

Sinkhole swallows two vehicles on Omaha street corner

Drivers of SUV and pickup truck emerge unscathed from incident in trendy section of Nebraska city

Surveillance video captured the dramatic moment a sinkhole opened up on a busy intersection in south-central Omaha, Nebraska, swallowing up two vehicles.

The incident happened on Tuesday afternoon in a trendy section of the midwest city, when a sport utility vehicle and a pickup truck waiting at a traffic light dropped into a hole several feet deep as the pavement under them suddenly gave way. Neither driver was injured, police said.

Published: February 25, 2026, 6:50 pm

Tropical plants flowering months earlier or later because of climate crisis – study

Changes threaten ecosystems as flowering falls out of sync with fruit-eating, seed-dispersing animals and pollinators

Tropical flowers are blooming months earlier or later than they used to because of climate breakdown, with potentially “cascading impacts across ecosystems”, according to a study of 8,000 plants dating back 200 years.

Researchers looked at flowers from a range of countries, including Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana and Thailand, home to the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth, but also the most understudied.

Published: February 25, 2026, 7:00 pm

Germany accused of ditching climate targets as it scraps renewables mandate

Coalition government agrees to remove parts of controversial law and allow homes to rely on fossil fuels

Germany’s coalition government has been accused of abandoning its climate targets after agreeing to scrap parts of a contentious heating law mandating the use of renewables in favour of a draft law allowing homeowners to rely on fossil fuels.

While the previous law required most newly installed heating systems to use at least 65% renewable energy, often with a heat pump, the amended legislation will allow households to keep using oil and gas.

Published: February 25, 2026, 3:11 pm

Toxic waste from screens ends up in endangered dolphins, study finds

Gene-altering chemicals found in humpback dolphins and finless porpoises, raising alarm they may end up in human food chain

Toxic e-waste chemicals from television, computer and smartphone screens have been found in the brains and bodies of endangered dolphins and porpoises in the South China Sea.

Research published in Environmental Science & Technology detected significant levels of gene-altering liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) in Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins and finless porpoises.

Published: February 25, 2026, 1:00 pm

Trump touts ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda – but no mention of climate crisis

President derided Biden’s ‘green new scam’ during State of the Union address, and hailed the rise in US oil production

Trump didn’t say the words “climate change” during the State of the Union, but it loomed large over his 108-minute speech as he touted his “drill, baby, drill” agenda and derided Joe Biden’s “green new scam”.

Toward the beginning of his address, the president discussed last year’s flooding at Camp Mystic in Texas, saying they were “one of the worst things I’ve ever seen”.

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:00 am

Mamdani names social services chief amid scrutiny over deaths of homeless New Yorkers

Department commissioner will be Erin Dalton, who conducted outreach in Pennsylvania among unhoused communities

Zohran Mamdani, New York’s mayor, has hired Erin Dalton as a new commissioner of the city’s department of social services.

The hire comes as the new mayor has faced scrutiny over the city’s handling of its unhoused population following the deaths of at least 20 people who were found outdoors during an especially cold winter.

Published: February 25, 2026, 9:19 pm

Man who stabbed four to death in Washington state had history of mental health issues

Man, 32, shot dead by deputy after stabbing attack was the subject of domestic violence protection orders

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A man shot dead by a sheriff’s deputy after he fatally stabbed four people outside his mother’s home near Gig Harbor, Washington, on Tuesday morning was the subject of domestic violence protection orders recording mental health and substance abuse issues stretching back at least five years.

Records reviewed by Associated Press show that the woman living at the address had obtained a 12-month protection order against her 32-year-old son in May. The order noted that he struggled from substance abuse, and had threatened his mother saying that her “grave has been already dug up”.

Published: February 25, 2026, 2:17 pm

US tariffs could rise to 15% or more after supreme court blow, trade representative says

Jamieson Greer warns tariffs may climb from 10% after Trump imposed global levy amid US supreme court setback

The US tariff rate for some countries will go up to 15% or higher from the newly imposed 10%, Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, said on Wednesday, without naming any specific trading partners or other details.

“Right now, we have the 10% tariff. It’ll go up to 15 [%] for some and then it may go higher for others, and I think it will be in line with the types of tariffs we’ve been seeing,” Greer said in an interview on Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria program.

Published: February 25, 2026, 1:46 pm

Meta’s AI sending ‘junk’ tips to DoJ, US child abuse investigators say

Officers say flood of low-quality reports is draining resources and slowing cases amid New Mexico lawsuit

Meta’s use of artificial intelligence software to moderate its social media platforms is generating large volumes of useless reports about cases of child sexual abuse, which are draining resources and hindering investigations, said officers from the US Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforce.

“We get a lot of tips from Meta that are just kind of junk,” Benjamin Zwiebel, a special agent with the ICAC taskforce in New Mexico, said last week during his testimony in the state’s trial against Meta. The state’s attorney general alleges the company’s platforms are putting profits over child safety. Meta disputes these allegations, citing changes it has introduced on its platforms, such as teen accounts with default protections. The ICAC taskforce is a nationwide network of law enforcement agencies coordinated with the US Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute online child exploitation and abuse cases.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:39 pm

Jacinda Ardern living and working in Australia after move from US

Exclusive: Former New Zealand PM ‘based out of Australia’, according to spokesperson, after rumours she was looking for houses in Sydney

The former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern is living in Australia with her family, a spokesperson has confirmed.

“The family has been travelling for a few years now,” her office told the Guardian.

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:14 am

Spanish officer who led 1981 coup dies on day documents declassified

Antonio Tejero, who has died aged 93, was part of rightwing network whose efforts were thwarted by King Juan Carlos

The Spanish officer who led his armed followers into the Spanish congress in a failed military coup in 1981 has died on the same day that the socialist-led government declassified documents relating to the murky attempt to overthrow the country’s post-Franco democracy.

Antonio Tejero, who died aged 93, was part of a network of rightwing police and military officers whose efforts to seize power were thwarted after King Juan Carlos refused to support the coup and ordered the generals to obey the democratic constitutional order.

Published: February 25, 2026, 8:18 pm

Berlin film festival organisers to hold crisis talks amid Gaza rows

Emergency meeting called to discuss festival’s ‘future direction’ after series of controversies

The organisation that manages the Berlin film festival is to meet for talks amid reports that its American director faces dismissal after a series of rows over Gaza.

In a statement on Wednesday, the office of Germany’s federal government commissioner for culture and media said the emergency meeting on Thursday had been called to debate the “future direction of the Berlinale”.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:40 pm

Met on Fabergé egg hunt after items worth £2m poached from Soho pub

Enzo Conticello admits theft as judge says ‘I expect we’re going to find out’ what he did with egg and luxury watch

Metropolitan police officers are still trying to recover an unusual pickpocketing haul after a Fabergé egg and watch worth £2m were stolen at a pub in Soho in London.

Enzo Conticello stole the treasures from Rosie Dawson, the director of premium brands at the Craft Irish Whiskey Company, in a West End pub in November 2024, alongside some more conventional loot contained in the handbag he swiped, including her laptop and credit cards. Met detectives arrested him in Belfast on 26 January.

Published: February 25, 2026, 6:28 pm

Two skinheads counting the takings from a neo-Nazi gig: Leo Regan’s best photograph

‘These guys wanted to leave the chaos and fighting of a neo-Nazi skinhead band playing a school hall – and causing horror. “We’re using your car to count up the takings,” one told me. “As long as I can take a photo,” I said’

In 1990, I was working in photojournalism but doing music photography on the side to make money. At the time there was a rise in neo-Nazi music, with bands such as Skrewdriver and the Blood and Honour movement. I was initially going to do a magazine piece on it but it grew into a much bigger project and I ended up spending two years following these people around the country. It led to a book and a documentary.

It was a difficult project and there were moral and ethical challenges as well as dangerous ones, but that was part of the attraction. The people were suspicious of me but I was honest about what I wanted to do. They knew I didn’t agree with their politics but that I didn’t have an agenda.

Published: February 25, 2026, 3:15 pm

‘A partisan and politician’: Abraham Lincoln and the art of the deal

New book Boss Lincoln takes a fresh look at a well-studied political figure, showing him to be a master of party politics

Some historians are wary of discussing their work in light of modern events, comparing subjects to current political players. Not Matthew Pinsker of Dickinson College, the author of both a major new book, Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln, and the Substack What Would Lincoln Do?.

“I’m not running away from it, that’s for sure,” Pinsker said from Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Published: February 25, 2026, 10:11 am

The Martini Shot review – Matthew Modine and a cast to die for can’t fathom an unholy mess

Modine plays a dying director shooting his final film – alongside Derek Jacobi, John Cleese and Stuart Townsend – in this baffling existential drama

Shot in Ireland, so at least the landscapes look pretty, this cuckoo-bananas drama stars Matthew Modine – rocking a white mop of hair and a bushy brush of fake beard – an American film director called Steve who is facing the end of his life. Or maybe he is God himself, casting souls in some indie-budget nonsense about a film director named Steve who looks just like him – or a deluded mortal who thinks he’s God who is fantasising all this on his death bed, or all those things at once.

Like the concept of the Holy Trinity, this is not easy for mere mortals to comprehend, but it has to be said that this is a mostly annoying and only fitfully interesting film. To give The Martini Shot the barest minimum of dues, it at least has a few fine actors in the cast, like Modine himself, Derek Jacobi, John Cleese, Stuart Townsend and, weirdly, Morgana Robinson (so great as Pippa Middleton in The Windsors). They help ease the tedium of waiting for this waffly, “spiritual” self-indulgent nonsense to finish.

Published: February 25, 2026, 9:00 am

‘We’re a pub friendship – with songs attached’: deadpan dazzlers Black Box Recorder return, thanks to Billie Eilish

Their unnerving songs about car crashes and suburban ennui, sung in a sparkling yet unemotional RP, stood out from the Britpop bloat. Now, thanks to a certain singer taking their streams stratospheric, the band are back

John Moore, the guitarist in Black Box Recorder, adopts a weary tone as he tells this story. “Our daughter said to us, ‘Have you heard of Billie Eilish?’” His response was not what she was expecting. “Yes,” he said. “She’s fucked up our retirement.” This spring, he, Luke Haines and vocalist Sarah Nixey (the mother of said daughter, though she and Moore are long separated) will return to the stage for the first time since 2009, in part thanks to their streaming numbers going stratospheric after Eilish posted videos of herself listening to their 1998 debut single Child Psychology.

The song, about a disruptive girl who has refused to speak, been expelled from school and fallen out with her family, is typical of Black Box Recorder’s obsession with psychological breakdown in a peculiarly English, often suburban and middle-class setting: stories related by Nixey in her sparkling yet deadpan vocals. It’s a mix that later broke Black Box Recorder into the UK Top 20 with 2000 single The Facts of Life, and produced three albums that still stand apart from the rest of British pop.

Published: February 25, 2026, 4:00 pm

Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block review – a true ‘Misery’ memoir

A compelling and fitfully harrowing child’s-eye account of a mother’s unravelling

Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him out of school. It was the early 1990s and the family had recently moved from Indianapolis to Plano, Texas, where Block’s father had started a new job. While Block and his older brother, Aaron, had been wrenched away from their schoolmates, their mother had left behind work, a social life and her best friend, and found herself isolated and rudderless. But then she discovered a new purpose: taking charge of her son’s education.

Homeschooled reveals how Block ended up spending five years deprived of the company of his peers (including Aaron, who continued going to school) and at the mercy of his mother’s unpredictable moods. She had decided school was stifling her younger son’s creativity and that mainstream education wasn’t right for a boy of his sensitivities.

Published: February 25, 2026, 7:00 am

My Bags Are Big by Tibor Fischer review – how to make it in crypto

Amusing oddballs populate a wise-cracking wheeler-dealer’s tale of leaving London for Dubai in search of loot and laughs

The narrator of Tibor Fischer’s eighth novel, My Bags Are Big, is a walking anachronism. Dan is “an old school crypto geezer” who hails from south London and lives in Dubai, where he drives an old Citroën and wears a Mickey Mouse watch given to him by his father in the 1970s. He’s done well for himself – the bags of the title are a slang term for a cryptocurrency wallet – though it didn’t happen overnight. “Get rich quick? It was very much a get slightly comfortable slowly deal.” His adopted city, he tells us, is “a cross between Las Vegas, an airport departure lounge and a pirate bay”, and a magnet for low-status westerners looking to reinvent themselves: “Assistant masseurs at second division football clubs. Taxi drivers. Linen porters. Nail technicians. Dog groomers. Life coaches. They’re all through the pearly gates, here in Dubai.”

Dan himself is one such individual. Having just turned 60, he relates his journey from Catford to Dubai, via a calamitous career in sports management, a doomed love affair with a quantum physicist, and several brief encounters with David Bowie. In the 80s he won a vindaloo-eating contest and had a Monty Python-esque run-in with some Maoist student revolutionaries. The novel is populated by amusing oddballs, including one character who belongs to an international bollard appreciation society, and another who superstitiously smears caviar on to a lottery ticket in the hope of “giving it a taste of wealth”.

Published: February 25, 2026, 9:00 am

Why Xbox’s corporate shake-up matters for everyone who plays games

With ​i​ts longtime figureheads stepping aside, Microsoft’s gaming division faces a pivotal moment​, raising questions about whether ​i​t can still balance creative ambition with corporate strategy​ in the age of AI

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And so it’s all change at Xbox. Last Friday it was announced that the CEO of Microsoft’s gaming division, Phil Spencer, is to retire, while its president Sarah Bond is resigning. In their place, a new partnership: Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is promoted to chief content officer, while the new CEO is Asha Sharma, who moves from her post as president of Microsoft’s CoreAI product.

In a company-wide email, Spencer stated that he would stay on until the summer in an advisory role before, “starting the next chapter of my life”. For her part, Bond issued a statement on her LinkedIn account: “I’ve decided this is the right time for me to take my next step, both personally and professionally.” It was all extremely good natured, but its doubtful these airy missives tell the full tale.

Published: February 25, 2026, 12:30 pm

Pieced Together review – poignant narrative game gathers bittersweet fragments of a friendship

Glowfrog Games; PC
Short but very sweet tale asks the player to compile a scrapbook of mementoes telling the story of a heartfelt bond that frays over time

There are few things sadder than the end of a close friendship. Whether it happens in a sudden moment of betrayal or after years of gradual separation, the feelings of loss can stay with you for a lifetime.

This is the theme of Pieced Together, a quiet, charming narrative game about best pals Connie and Beth, who meet at school in the 1990s and form an immediate, seemingly inseparable bond. Through the ingenious medium of an interactive scrapbook, we play as Connie, glueing in photos, notes and memories of her friend after years of separation. The game begins with several attempts to write Beth a letter, before we cut-out, stick and sort the story of their lives together.

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:00 am

Sondra Lee, Broadway star of Hello, Dolly! and Peter Pan, dies aged 97

The Broadway actor’s nine-decade career included beloved screen roles and coaching Marlon Brando and Jane Fonda

Sondra Lee, the Broadway and film star, died on Monday of natural causes at the age of 97.

The news of her death came from her collaborator and friend the Rev Joshua Ellis, a former Broadway publicist and an interspiritual minister.

Published: February 25, 2026, 6:48 pm

Source close to Rolling Stones disputes Melania producer’s claim Mick Jagger ‘gave his blessing’ to use song

Spokesperson for Rolling Stones tells Guardian band did not liaise with Marc Beckman and his team on use of Gimme Shelter in first lady documentary

A source close to Mick Jagger has cast doubt on a claim by Melania producer Marc Beckman that his team was closely involved with the singer over the use of a Rolling Stones song in the film.

The film, which follows the first lady in the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, opens with a sequence in Mar-a-Lago soundtracked to the Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter. Despite being owned by music company ABKCO, Beckman told Variety that Jagger “was actually involved” and “gave us his blessing”.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:18 pm

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s State of the Union: ‘A nutjob wannabe king’

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s record-breakingly long and typically divisive address on Tuesday night

Late-night hosts recapped Donald Trump’s interminable State of the Union address and the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, using taxpayer money to travel for her alleged affair.

Published: February 25, 2026, 4:39 pm

Phil Collins, Mariah Carey and Lauryn Hill among Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees

Hall revealed 17 nominees for 2026 induction in list that also includes Shakira, Sade, Iron Maiden and the Wu-Tang Clan

Phil Collins, Mariah Carey, Lauryn Hill, INXS, Iron Maiden, Luther Vandross and Shakira are some the 2026 nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a wide net that includes rap, metal, R&B, hip-hop, Britpop, blues rock and pop.

The hall revealed the list of 17 performer nominees on Wednesday, a list that also includes Melissa Etheridge, Jeff Buckley, Pink, New Edition, Sade and the Wu-Tang Clan.

Published: February 25, 2026, 1:00 pm

I suddenly went blind 2,000 miles from home – alone, penniless and confused

In 1990, Gary Williamson was 18, backpacking in Europe, when his vision began to fail. It was the start of a perilous journey

The first sign that something was wrong was the blurred text in the book Gary Williamson was reading. The problem with his vision had come on suddenly – the day before, it had been normal. Williamson thought perhaps he was tired, or run down. He was 18 and had arrived in Gibraltar after travelling through Europe for two weeks, sleeping rough and not eating or drinking properly. “I’ll go and get some water and something to eat. I thought: maybe it’s nothing. I’ll see how I am tomorrow. The next day, I woke up and it was bad again.” He remembers cautiously getting out his book to test his eyesight: “It’s actually getting worse. I can’t read it now. The lines were starting to blur.” He had relied on a map to get him that far. “I remember thinking: that’s going to become useless very soon. I need to work out what I’m doing.” He needed to get home.

It was 1990, and Williamson didn’t think to call home to ask for help. With no money left – he had made it to Gibraltar four days earlier with the intention to find work – he decided to hitch a lift, thinking a UK-bound lorry would be his best bet. He made it to the gates where the haulage lorries left the port, threw down his backpack by the side of the road and waited. None of the lorries stopped to pick him up. He was, he says, “panicking a little bit, thinking: what do I do? It was harder than I thought it was going to be.” Around 6pm, he gave up. He went back to where he had been sleeping, on a patch of sandy ground behind a sandwich stall over the Spanish border. Before he went to sleep, he wished that he would get a lift the next day, and that his eyesight wouldn’t be any worse. When he woke up, it was.

Published: February 25, 2026, 5:00 am

Fast-breaking fashion: Ramadan becomes part of London fashion week

British-Yemeni designer Kazna Asker paused her presentation at sunset to share iftar with the models, staff and guests

For the first time in its history, Ramadan and the act of fast-breaking have been officially incorporated into a London fashion week show, according to the British Fashion Council.

On Monday evening, 29-year-old British-Yemeni designer Kazna Asker deliberately paused her presentation at sunset to share iftar with the models, who were also fasting, as were the interns and many of the staff.

Published: February 25, 2026, 6:30 pm

Maria Grazia Chiuri brings a radical spirit to Fendi debut

Eight months after departing Dior, Chiuri’s return to fashion’s front bench was stamped with her identity and values

A big name designer’s first catwalk show in a new job is a drumroll moment of pure ego: Maria Grazia Chiuri, who joins Fendi after leaving Dior, is a headline-making hire with main character energy.

The first surprise, as Milan fashion week began, was a catwalk painted with the motto: “Less I, more us.”

Published: February 25, 2026, 7:03 pm

‘We don’t take ourselves too seriously’: street style at London fashion week – in pictures

From a Lidl trolley bag to thrifted berets and a vintage Louis Vuitton bag, fans attending this year’s shows proved that fashion in the capital is all about experimentation, eccentricity and a sense humour

Published: February 25, 2026, 1:00 pm

Jess Cartner-Morley on fashion: the quarter-zip is the breakout star of 2026 – and I think I know why

It was once reserved for office workers and Rishi Sunak, but now pop stars and supermodels can’t get enough of the preppy look

My favourite kind of fashion moment is not a Met Gala headline-maker or a Paris catwalk extravaganza. Nope. My favourite fashion moment is when one piece of clothing is suddenly everywhere for no obvious reason, which is what is happening right now with the quarter-zip sweater.

The jumper with a chin-to-breastbone zip, which has been around for ever, is the breakout main character of the 2026 wardrobe. At a Chanel catwalk show held in New York recently, a quarter-zip knit was the star of the show, worn with a fancy cocktail-hour skirt and diamond drop earrings. Charli xcx teamed a Saint Laurent one with sunglasses and shorts on her last trip to Paris fashion week. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta wears stealth-wealth dark merino ones in the dugout, rapper Central Cee wears a cream Ralph Lauren one on TikTok – and the man opposite you on the train right now, taking a Zoom call on his AirPods while eating Pret porridge, is probably wearing one too.

Published: February 25, 2026, 2:00 pm

A moment that changed me: I was hit by an SUV – and it made me reconsider my drinking and screen time

I was in New Orleans for work, without travel insurance, when the car crashed into me. In the months I spent recovering, I began to think seriously about how I treated my health

The SUV slammed into me at a crosswalk, where I had right of way. It was 2024 and I was on the first night of a work trip to New Orleans. Time slowed down as I flew 2 metres through the air and crashed on to the road in what felt like slow motion. When I managed to stand up, there were waves of adrenaline juddering through me. My friend, Brandy, and a group of strangers helped me to the side of the road, and it was then that I remembered my annual travel insurance had expired the week before. In a prim, defensive tone, like a dowager who’d just had a fainting spell and resented all the fuss, I insisted that I was perfectly fine and didn’t need an ambulance. Then I blacked out.

The paramedics arrived and, despite my protests, they wouldn’t take no for an answer. On the stretcher, I started calculating how much money I had in my current account, how much I could put on a credit card and how much I could plausibly ask to borrow from my parents. My lack of insurance was entirely due to my own fecklessness, but being forced to run these sums with a head injury, after begging not to receive help that I obviously needed, was an almost comically bleak experience.

Published: February 25, 2026, 6:45 am

Table for one: is eating lunch at work on your own a bad thing?

In France, they think it is, alarmed by more and more young people choosing to do so. They should see how many eat alone in the UK …

Name: The lonely lunch.

Age: Recent, but growing.

Published: February 25, 2026, 4:08 pm

Nadiya Hussain on food, faith and finding her voice: ‘I get paid less than the white version of me’

After a decade at the top, the Bake Off winner is reclaiming her career and refusing to soften her edges. She discusses racism, gaslighting – and why comfort food is more important than ever

In a food world where the trend is for protein and weight-loss injections and sugar is the supervillain, Nadiya’s Quick Comforts seems somewhat contrary. There are golden syrup dumplings. There is a chapter devoted to deep frying, with cheese balls and ingenious deep-fried cannelloni.

“If I could write an entire book on deep frying, I absolutely would,” says Hussain with a laugh. “This is how I cook, this is how I eat, this is how I show love to my family. Everything in there is stuff that my kids absolutely love.” It’s about balance, she says – there are also lovely recipes for soothing plant-based dal and delicious noodles – because “I think anything that’s an extreme version of itself is dangerous”.

Published: February 25, 2026, 7:00 am

Why the longest-ever State of the Union address was the most inconsequential

Amid Trump’s lies and xenophobic rants, people struggling to pay bills and make ends meet are unlikely to be moved

He wanted to give the king’s speech. Donald Trump entered the US House chamber on Tuesday like a medieval monarch, with Republicans lined up eager to touch his royal robes (or, in two cases, grab a selfie with him). But within moments, the illusion was shattered.

As the US president strolled by, soaking up adulation, the Democratic representative Al Green of Texas held aloft a handwritten sign: “Black people aren’t apes!” – a reference to Trump recently sharing a racist video depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama.

Published: February 25, 2026, 10:39 am

‘Big Four’ meatpackers under fire as beef prices soar

McDonald’s and other food industry players accuse the big beef packers of collusion and price-gouging. The packers deny these allegations

On 21 November, at the end of the first shift at the Tyson Foods beef processing plant in Lexington, Nebraska, all workers were called to the lunchroom and told they no longer had jobs. Many gathered afterward in the gravel parking lot. Some wailed and cried out.

“It’s a terrible thing to know that we won’t be able to pay rent, won’t be able to pay the electricity, our cars – all the bills coming our way,” said Constancio Perales, a 64-year-old worker born in Durango, Mexico, who has worked at the plant since 1996 – the last 25 years cutting the bone out of chuck steaks. “It’s very sad that they would fire us like that – just telling us there’s no more work, as if to say go away.”

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:00 am

Reflections in Kyiv and bread baking in Gaza: photos of the day – Wednesday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Published: February 25, 2026, 2:18 pm