The Bachelorette bet big on controversy. Is it any surprise it blew up in their faces?

The show’s last-minute cancellation over star Taylor Frankie Paul’s domestic violence footage is the sadly predictable result of a network overlooking red flags

This week was not a good one to be a Disney executive. Days ago, reports began circulating that Taylor Frankie Paul, the star of the Hulu series Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and ABC’s upcoming The Bachelorette, was involved in a domestic violence investigation stemming from a February incident with her ex-partner, Dakota Mortensen. (Disney is the parent company of Hulu and ABC.) By Tuesday, multiple outlets reported that production on the fifth season of Mormon Wives was down, as cast members refused to interact with Paul. The 31-year-old TikTok turned reality star, meanwhile, soldiered on with a gauntlet of Bachelorette promotional duties, speaking vaguely about “heavy times”. But on Thursday, video leaked online of a domestic violence incident from 2023; footage showed an intoxicated Paul throwing metal barstools at Mortensen and accidentally hitting her five-year-old daughter. By day’s end, the network cancelled the whole season of The Bachelorette, heavily advertised and filmed in its entirety last year, three days before its premiere.

You could say that this mess, which has drawn the attention of people previously unaware of MomTok or the Bachelorette, is sad, troubling or too complex for entertainment. (It is all of the above.) What you cannot say is that this is a surprise. To anyone with even a cursory understanding of the Mormon Wives franchise or time to Google, this debacle is sadly predictable – the likely result of banking on a famously divisive reality star to rejuvenate a flagging franchise, and the latest example of legacy media overlooking red flags for influencer clout. To be clear: Paul’s actions are her own, but this debacle – which will reportedly cost ABC tens of millions of dollars – is on the company.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:11 pm

Influencers are drinking shots of olive oil and lemon juice. Should you?

Wellness enthusiasts on TikTok and Instagram claim the combination bestows glowing skin and better digestion

A shot of lemon juice and olive oil might be delicious on a salad – but would you drink it straight up?

That’s what wellness enthusiasts on TikTok and Instagram are doing, claiming it bestows glowing skin and better digestion, and supports the dubious process of “detoxing”.

Published: March 20, 2026, 4:26 pm

The legend of Cesar Chavez will never be the same after multiple rape allegations | Moira Donegan

The righteousness of the farmworker struggle persists in the face of a man who chose not to live up to its values

Cesar Chavez, one of the founders of the United Farm Workers, who died in 1993, led a movement for the rights and dignity of a long-abused, neglected and exploited agricultural workforce. Through a series of marches, hunger strikes, boycotts and union drives, Chavez and his movement succeeded in winning crucial labor and civil rights protections and advancing the cause and status of the Latino civil rights movement nationwide.

He also, according to a new report from the New York Times, sexually harassed and assaulted women in his movement, and sexually abused and raped the daughters of some UFW organizers when they were girls.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

‘He was a very dear friend’: Cary Elwes on life after The Princess Bride – and losing Rob Reiner

The actor was Marlon Brando’s PA, and received career advice from Al Pacino. But it’s for the catchphrase-strewn classic that he’ll be best remembered. He talks about the film’s legacy, and its director Reiner, who he will ‘miss terribly’

In 1988, the actor Cary Elwes’s career had taken a nosedive. His latest film, a fantasy in which he played a farm boy turned swashbuckling hero, had bombed at the box office and the actor had been out of work for a year. One day he was in a New York restaurant when he spotted Al Pacino, so he went over and introduced himself. “He asked me if I was working and I said no,” Elwes recalls. “He said: ‘You need to exercise your [acting] muscles,’ and told me to go back to school and train.” Pacino put him in touch with the Lee Strasberg Institute, where he had studied with his friend and mentor Charlie Laughton. “I auditioned, I got in and ended up working with Al’s mentor, and it changed my life.”

The meeting with Pacino wasn’t the only life-changing event for Elwes that year, however. The “dud” movie in which he played the handsome farmhand, Westley? That was The Princess Bride, a fairytale spoof that was also an adventure story aimed at adults and children alike, and that its director Rob Reiner later said was a nightmare to market. A year after its theatrical release, it came out on VHS and suddenly took on a life of its own.

Published: March 20, 2026, 3:00 pm

‘When he turned two we had party hats and cake’: how dogs became the new babies

One in three UK postcodes now has more dogs than children. Meet the Dinkwads (dual income, no kids, with a dog). Plus Tim Dowling’s guide to the best breeds for Dinkwads

Bryan Bell was at home when his one-year-old Patti collapsed, shaking like a leaf in a gale-force tornado. She was having a fit. Bell’s husband, John, was out of the house and he didn’t know what to do. “It was quite a traumatic experience because I didn’t know what was happening,” the 40-year-old PR recalls. Eventually, Patti’s fit subsided and the couple soon found a diagnosis from her doctor: their miniature dachshund had epilepsy. “She’s all medicated now, so it’s under control. But when it happens, you feel like: ‘Is this going to be the fit that’s too much for her little head?’”

Medical scares, behaviour issues and a tendency to eat you out of house and home – many dog owners will tell you that getting a four-legged friend bears more than a few similarities to having a young child. But as birthrates plummet across the world, a curious inverse trend has emerged: couples are getting dogs. Lots and lots of couples, in fact. They’re called Dinkwads (dual income, no kids, with a dog) and their numbers are growing. With one in three postcodes in England home to more dogs than children, you are now more likely to hear the howl of a basset hound than the sound of kids playing. If you counted up all the estimated 13 million dogs in the UK, from pint-sized chihuahuas to lolloping great danes, you’d only be two million short of the total number of children. And unlike the human birthrate – which in Britain hit a record low in 2024 – the number of dogs only looks set to increase.

Published: March 20, 2026, 3:00 pm

‘Weirdness, paranoia and extremity’: why HBO’s Neighbors is TV’s most fascinating show

The Josh Safdie-produced docuseries draws us into a bizarre variety of alternately relatable and scarily alienating neighbor disputes

Once upon a time, I worked as a local reporter in small-town Montana. The job, in which I had to make actual cold calls and regularly attend local council meetings, was extremely instructive; nothing teaches you about the idiosyncrasies of people like showing up at their door and hearing their community concerns. During my time there, we ran several extremely in-the-weeds stories about a rancher’s proposed water bottling plant, which was vehemently opposed by neighbors for its offensive sight and sound (and, secondarily, potential pollution). The details of the fight – and it was a very contentious fight – are hazy now, but the lesson is not: if there is one thing I learned from local reporting, it’s that nothing, absolutely nothing, turns people into the most ghoulish versions of themselves like threats, real or perceived, to one’s property.

I recalled this water bottling brouhaha a lot while watching Neighbors, a brilliant new docuseries on HBO which captures this lesson in its most contemporary, cancerous American iteration better than perhaps anything I’ve ever seen. (Taylor Sheridan’s mega-popular drama Yellowstone, essentially a property rights soap for dads, doesn’t come close.) Over five riveting episodes – the sixth and final premieres tonight – Neighbors takes a hyper-stylized, fish-eye lens to disputes of proximity and the fuzzy limits of personal space. The issues at hand are at once mundane and completely unhinged: a gay couple in Kokomo, Indiana, are furious that their neighbor has built a farm, with its attendant goat smell, in their cul-de-sac; a retired state senator in Texas resents the woman across the street for building a nine-foot-tall concrete “cartel” wall around her house; two tanned, blond women in Florida viciously fight – physically, emotionally, via competing surveillance systems – over a cumulative 35 sq ft strip of grass between their two driveways. It is extravagantly petty, extremely stressful (naturally – executive producers include A24 and Marty Supreme team Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein) and often completely unhinged. It is easily the best TV I’ve watched this year.

Published: March 20, 2026, 9:03 am

Trump decries Nato allies as ‘cowards’ as strait of Hormuz impasse goes on

Comments come amid reports US is preparing to send three more warships and thousands more troops to Middle East

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has called Nato allies “cowards” for not wanting to “help open” the strait of Hormuz, with the US reportedly preparing to send three more warships and thousands more troops to the Middle East amid fears about the economic damage being caused by the war on Iran.

The US is reportedly considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran’s strategically crucial Kharg Island to pressure Tehran to reopen the strait.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:41 pm

Father of killed US military member disputes Hegseth’s claim he said to ‘finish’ the job in Iran

Defense secretary had said relatives of service members killed in refueling tanker crash told him ‘do not stop until the job is done’

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The father of a US military member killed in the Iran war has contradicted Pete Hegseth’s claim that bereaved families urged him to “finish” the job in the Middle East.

Hegseth, the defense secretary and a former weekend Fox News host, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing on Thursday that he had spoken with relatives of all six service members killed in last week’s refueling tanker crash during a “dignified transfer” of their remains at Delaware’s Dover air force station the night before.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:50 pm

‘The saddest day for Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem’: al-Aqsa mosque closed at Eid

Palestinians say the move is part of a wider Israeli strategy to leverage security tensions to tighten restrictions

For the first time since 1967, al-Aqsa mosque – Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site – was closed at the end of Ramadan on Friday, with tensions rising among Palestinians as Israeli authorities keep the complex shut, forcing worshippers to hold Eid prayers as close as they could to the sealed site.

On Friday morning, hundreds of worshippers were forced to pray outside the Old City, as Israeli police barricaded the entrances to the site.

Published: March 20, 2026, 1:11 pm

Gabbard testimony on Puerto Rico voting machines raises questions about role of Venezuela conspiracy theory

National intelligence director said voting machine seizure was requested by US attorney in Puerto Rico – who’s been trying to revive 2020 election conspiracy theory

When the US director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Thursday that her office seized voting machines from Puerto Rico, she said it was at the request of the office of the US attorney in Puerto Rico. Left unsaid was that the prosecutor, as the Guardian previously reported, has been the center of a push by Donald Trump supporters to revive a long discredited conspiracy theory purporting to link Venezuela to Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the conspiracy theory maintains, controlled electronic voting machines worldwide and remotely manipulated results in 2020 to deprive Trump of a presidential victory.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:50 pm

Top US Fema official claims to have teleported to a Waffle House before

‘Teleporting is no fun,’ Gregg Phillips, picked to lead Fema’s office of response and recovery, has said on a podcast

A far-right conspiracy theorist turned high-ranking official at the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) claims to have once teleported to a Waffle House.

Gregg Phillips, who in December was appointed to lead Fema’s office of response and recovery, has spoken on “multiple podcasts” about being teleported against his will, CNN reported on Friday.

Published: March 20, 2026, 7:38 pm

Travelers in US continue to face delays at airport security amid DHS shutdown

Staffing shortages intensify and lead to longer screening times as TSA workers go for weeks without pay

Many travelers across the US are continuing to face significant delays at airport security checkpoints as the homeland security department shutdown, which has affected staffing of the Transportation Security Administration, remains ongoing.

With TSA workers going for weeks without pay, staffing shortages have intensified, leading to longer screening times and growing frustration among passengers.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:40 pm

Canadian mother and daughter ‘traumatized’ by ICE detainment, husband says

Tania Warner and Ayla, her seven-year-old with autism, sent to notorious Texas detention center and told to ‘self-deport’

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A Canadian woman and her seven-year-old daughter with autism who have been held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for nearly a week have been transferred to a notorious detention center and asked to “self-deport”, according to her husband, who said the pair had been “traumatized” by the experience.

Tania Warner and her daughter Ayla Luca, originally from British Columbia, moved to the US five years ago, when Warner married Edward Warner, a US citizen.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:04 pm

Arizona desert town breaks record for hottest March temperature in US history

Martinez Lake, about 145 miles west of Phoenix, reached 110F (43.3C) on Thursday amid scorching south-west heat

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A small community in the Arizona desert has broken a record for the highest March temperature ever recorded in the US, as the south-west bakes in a blistering late-winter heatwave.

The astonishing temperature was recorded just outside Martinez Lake, Arizona, which reached 110F (43.3C) on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:22 pm

Tuskegee basketball coach who was handcuffed by police after game files $1m lawsuit

• Benjy Taylor is suing Morehouse, two campus officers

• Incident came after dispute over taunts, handshake line

Tuskegee men’s basketball coach Benjy Taylor filed a lawsuit against Morehouse College and two campus police officers on Friday, claiming he suffered emotional and physical harm when he was handcuffed and escorted off the court on 31 January.

“He has suffered financial harm, reputational harm, emotional harm as well as physical damages,” Harry Daniels, one of Taylor’s attorneys, told the Associated Press.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:24 pm

US company to pay $22.5m over newborn’s death after denying woman remote work

Chelsea Walsh prematurely gave birth after firm rejected work from home request in 2021 amid high-risk pregnancy

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An Ohio freight-brokerage firm must pay $22.5m in damages to a woman whom the company denied permission to work from home as she tried managing pregnancy complications – and then endured her newborn’s death after prematurely giving birth, a state court jury has decided.

The case centering on Chelsea Walsh, her late daughter Magnolia, and Total Quality Logistics (TQL) unfolded as many employers increasingly allowed remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic – but then pushed to get workers physically back into the office.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:09 pm

Chuck Norris, prolific action star and martial arts champion, dies aged 86

Actor who rose to fame after starring in Bruce Lee’s The Way of the Dragon also became a TV fixture with Walker, Texas Ranger

• Chuck Norris – a life in pictures

Chuck Norris, the former world karate champion who used his fight prowess to become the star of a string of low-budget but financially successful action movies, has died aged 86.

His family posted a message on social media saying Norris had died on Thursday, adding: “While we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace.”

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:16 pm

The Salt Path author published earlier book under alias, despite debut claims

Raynor Winn’s lawyers have confirmed she published a previous book in 2012, years before the memoir that won a £10,000 prize for debut writers

Author Raynor Winn published a book under a pseudonym six years before her 2018 memoir The Salt Path, despite repeatedly describing the later work as her debut, it has emerged.

Winn received widespread acclaim for The Salt Path, including a £10,000 prize for debut writers.

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:05 pm

Trump pressures Congress to pass strict voter ID and farm bills – live

Trump emphasizes that there is ‘nothing more important’ for the US at the moment than voter ID as he demands Congress to pass the Save America act

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The US military is deploying thousands of additional marines and sailors to the Middle East, three US officials told Reuters on Friday.

One of the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the USS Boxer, along with the marine expeditionary unit onboard, were departing the west coast of the US about three weeks ahead of schedule.

Published: March 20, 2026, 8:12 pm

Confusion abounds over future of US vaccine advisory committee

Former ACIP members make contradictory statements following judge essentially invalidating panel and recent decisions

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Does the US have a vaccine advisory committee? The answer became surprisingly murky on Thursday, as former members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and health officials made contradictory statements following a federal judge essentially invalidating the committee and their recent decisions on Monday.

According to a former member of the committee who asked not to be identified to discuss sensitive matters, ACIP will continue to exist without the 13 members who were stayed by Judge Brian Murphy on Monday – and officials plan to start the process over again with new members.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:32 pm

Trump administration sues Harvard again over accusations of antisemitism

Lawsuit alleges university violated civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people in aftermath of war in Gaza

The Trump administration has renewed its assault on Harvard University, filing a lawsuit in Massachusetts alleging the Ivy League institution violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people in the aftermath of the war in Gaza.

The lawsuit, shared publicly by the New York Times, accuses Harvard of allowing anti-Israel protesters to operate on campus “with impunity” following the 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Gaza and Israel’s massive military response.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:19 pm

IRS glitch masked $51m in political donations, finance watchdog says

Exclusive: Error in second half of 2025 came after IRS saw over a quarter of its workforce reduced after huge cuts by Doge

A technical glitch at the understaffed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is masking millions of dollars in campaign contributions to state-level election groups, including key governor and attorney general races, a campaign finance watchdog has told the Guardian.

A total of $51m for the second half of 2025 remains unaccounted for due to this technical error, according to the Center for Political Accountability (CPA), a non-profit that tracks corporate spending.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:00 am

How a Minneapolis childcare center survived the ICE surge – and is moving forward

Dozens of volunteers, mostly over the age of 70, offer rides and serve as interpreters

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On a February afternoon at a Spanish-immersion childcare center in Minneapolis, dozens of toddlers grabbed puffy coats out of cubbies as parents shuffled them out the door.

Down the hall, Michael, the husband of the center’s director, stared intently at a monitor streaming the building’s security footage, watching for any vehicles that might be carrying agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Since January, when federal agents descended on the Twin Cities as part of Operation Metro Surge, he’s been leaving his own job early to volunteer here every afternoon.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:00 am

Fuel rations and cash handouts: Iran war energy shock hits Asia | The Latest

Across south-east Asia, governments are scrambling to find ways to conserve energy and shield the public from soaring costs, as war in the Middle East causes huge disruption in the global oil market. In Thailand, news anchors are ditching their jackets after orders to reduce air conditioning use, while government workers in the Philippines are operating on a four-day week. Asia relies heavily on imported energy, much of which passes through the strait of Hormuz, and officials have warned further measures could be considered if the energy crisis worsens. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s south-east Asia correspondent, Rebecca Ratcliffe.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:42 pm

Applebee’s and Ihop unite – will new ‘dual’ restaurant tempt back US diners?

Fusion of cherished American eateries hopes to revive brands that have ‘gone hungry’ while rest of industry feasts

No one could say the New York union of Applebee’s and Ihop happened without fanfare.

A car park in Hawthorne, 30 miles north of Manhattan, had been decked out with a 30ft-high inflatable red apple. Red, white and blue bunting flew from masts. Upbeat music blasted from speakers.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Yes to fields of wheat, no to fields of iron’: how the world’s greenest country soured on solar

In Denmark, the spread of solar panels has become a divisive issue among voters, especially in rural areas

In one telling of the story, the golden fields of a proud farming nation are under attack. Besieged by an industrial sprawl of solar panels, they are being smothered at the behest of an urban elite.

That narrative has failed to thrive in conservative heartlands such as Texas and Hungary, which have embraced solar power while lambasting green rules. But it is taking root in Denmark, the most climate-ambitious nation on Earth. “We say yes to fields of wheat,” said Inger Støjberg, the leader of the rightwing populist Denmark Democrats in a speech in 2024. “And we say no to fields of iron!”

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:00 pm

Chuck Norris was the ass-kicking king of 80s Friday night VHS fests

The actor’s martial arts skills saw him rise to fame in the 70s, but he found his groove – and legions of fans – destroying furniture, revving muscle cars and firing heavy artillery in the 80s

• Chuck Norris, prolific action star and martial arts champion, dies aged 86
• Chuck Norris – a life in pictures

When Chuck Norris fought Bruce Lee in The Way of the Dragon in 1972, it looked like the clash of two mythic archetypes. For all his power, Lee appeared boyish and almost slight, his body as smooth as marble and clenched with defined muscle like an anatomical illustration – the ascetic young master of Asian fighting philosophies. Norris was bigger, bulkier, shaggier and hairier, and basically more American; he was just as fast as Bruce (or almost), a master of taekwondo and jiujitsu and his own discipline of Chun Kuk Do, but with a body that looked as if an ounce or two of old-fashioned fat – the byproduct of the odd porterhouse steak – would be neither here nor there (although in later years Norris dialled down the red meat).

Norris was a rip-roaring action hero in the stacked form also popularised by Sly, Arnie and later Jason Statham; he was basically in the tradition of occidental action, a western-style fighting man who had also absorbed the eastern arcana of unarmed combat into a persona that was also confident with heavy weaponry. The combination made him a lead like Clint Eastwood’s man with no name (and in fact his 1985 actioner Code of Silence, about a cop on the edge, was originally developed as a Dirty Harry vehicle). But Norris had something rangier and less enigmatic: you could call him the master of his own kind of whitesploitation ass-kicking spectacular.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:05 pm

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Crisis in the Middle East, a sandstorm in Gaza, a blackout in Havana and the Oscars – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Published: March 20, 2026, 7:22 pm

The best bike lights in the US to see and be seen

Whether you need a high-powered headlamp for riding at night or daytime lights to make yourself visible at all hours, here are the best options

• I cut up 15 bike locks to find the best in the US. Here are my favorites

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A bike helmet may protect you in a crash, but lights can help prevent one from happening in the first place. Evidence suggests bike lights can improve rider visibility in traffic, particularly in bright or shifting light, where cyclists can otherwise blend into the background.

That’s why bike lights broadly fall into two categories: high-output headlamps to illuminate the road at night, and daytime running lights to make you more visible to motorists at all hours. Whether you ride to work daily or every now and then for exercise, owning a high-quality light is one of the cheapest investments you can make in two-wheeled safety. Modern LED lights provide impressive brightness and all-day battery life for very little cost or weight penalty, plus convenient charging with the same USB cable your phone uses.

Best daytime front and rear combo:
Trek Ion 100 R and Flare R City Light Set

Best budget combo:
Ascher Ultra Bright USB Rechargeable Bike Light Set

Published: March 20, 2026, 1:30 pm

Week in wildlife: wild boar babies, fenland ponies and a slug with strange genitalia

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: March 20, 2026, 8:00 am

Attacks on synagogues and Jewish shops in the UK, Europe and the US don’t hurt Netanyahu. They just hurt ordinary Jews | Jonathan Freedland

Too many want to cast acts of violence and antisemitism as blows against Israel’s government. But the fear and terror land on real people, thousands of miles away

Let us begin with a brief exchange on GB News, confirmed this week as the TV arm of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Following an attack on a synagogue last week in Michigan, in which a gunman drove a car packed with explosives through the entrance to the building before opening fire, a pundit on the channel sought to clarify what the attacker actually meant by his actions. “This was an Israeli temple,” she explained. “It was aligned with Israel.”

By way of evidence, she cited the name of the synagogue – Temple Israel – apparently unaware that Jews have referred to themselves as “the people of Israel” for millennia, long before there was a state of that name, and that there are, for that reason, countless synagogues in the US called Temple Israel. No, for her, the Michigan house of worship, with its on-site school where more than a hundred children were in lessons that day, was a de facto embassy of the Israeli state and therefore an understandable, if not legitimate, target. Hold that episode in your mind.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:13 pm

Ella Baron on Trump and interrupted shipping – cartoon

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Published: March 20, 2026, 5:58 pm

When your home country is ravaged by war, is it possible to stay neutral? | Shadi Khan Saif

Refusing to take sides in wartime can be dangerous. The ‘choice’ for civilians trying to survive is often an illusion

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Living in London, my elder brother – someone I have always looked up to – makes good use of his relative proximity to our ancestral home in Afghanistan. He travels back and forth so often that, from my base in Melbourne, I sometimes joke he has visited our village more times in the past few years than I have visited any other Australian city.

His most recent trip, however, did not go as planned. Flight disruptions linked to escalating tensions in the Middle East left him stranded in Istanbul for several days. Eventually he gave up and flew back to London, missing both the anniversary of our mother’s death in Kabul and the Eid celebrations many of the family members had hoped to mark together at the end of Ramadan.

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:00 pm

The war in Iran is ripping up the Gulf’s plan for stability | Sanam Vakil

As missiles fall from the sky and energy infrastructure is targeted, the limitations of relying on the US for protection are becoming all too obvious

For more than two weeks, missiles and drones have been crossing the skies of the Gulf, as a war many in the region sought to avoid – between the USand Israel, and Iran – continues to escalate. Airlines are diverting flights, shipping routes are being disrupted and air defence systems across the region are operating at constant alert. Now, with attacks extending to energy infrastructure including gas facilities and production sites, it is likely that the war has entered into a dangerous phase of escalation.

Yet the governments now living with these risks were among those that most tried to prevent the conflict, encouraging negotiations in recent months and warning about the dangers of escalation.

Sanam Vakil is the director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:30 pm

Behind the bombast, Trump will be worried: when he tries to stop the war on Iran, will anyone listen? | Simon Tisdall

Though the president wields great power, the conflict in the Middle East is spiralling in unforeseen ways that he may not be able to control

What a pity Benjamin Netanyahu remains at large after an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza was issued in 2024. Had he been detained, as he certainly should have been, the peoples of Iran, Lebanon, the Gulf – and Israel itself – might have been spared much present-day pain and suffering.

The Israeli prime minister’s lifelong, passionate obsession with eradicating the real and imagined threats posed by Iran was reportedly a key factor in prompting Donald Trump’s abrupt, unprovoked plunge into all-out war. Netanyahu should be in jail, not committing more crimes while the powerful but ego-driven US president negligently looks on.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

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Published: March 20, 2026, 12:10 pm

The Guardian view on anonymity in art: the ‘unmasking’ of Banksy and Ferrante should stop | Editorial

Our fascination with the ‘real’ identities of artists and writers is revealing about attitudes to fame and authorship

This week, contemporary art’s worst-kept secret was exposed when street artist Banksy was revealed to be 52-year-old Robin Gunningham, thanks to an 8,000-word investigation by Reuters. This would have been big news had the Mail on Sunday not got there first nearly two decades ago. Still, it made headlines.

The previous week, thousands of book lovers expressed their grief at the announcement on X of the death of Italian novelist Elena Ferrante, supposedly by her translator Ann Goldstein. In fact, it was the work of infamous Italian hoaxer Tommaso Debenedetti, who had set up an account in Goldstein’s name, and who pulled the same trick in 2022.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:25 pm

Bournemouth v Manchester United: Premier League – live

⚽ Updates from the 8pm GMT Premier League kick-off
⚽ Things to look out for | Table | Mail Tim

Both teams go into a huddle. No ref in the middle of either.

The players walk out into the fog of a firework display. United seem to be in their off-white strip. Sky reckons Rayan will be on the right for Bournemouth with Tavernier as the 10.

Published: March 20, 2026, 8:14 pm

Jessie Diggins seals extraordinary fourth World Cup title before retirement on home snow

• Diggins, 34, clinches fourth World Cup overall title

• American seals rare feat in Lake Placid season finale

• Minnesota-born star to retire after dominant season

No woman from outside Europe had ever captured the cross-country skiing World Cup overall title until Jessie Diggins in 2021. Now she’s won it four times.

Diggins clinched yet another crystal globe in the twilight of her glittering career on Friday, securing the season crown with a fifth-place finish in the 10km classic at the World Cup finals in Lake Placid, New York. The Minnesota-born star locked up the title with two races remaining in the season-ending weekend, giving her a third consecutive overall title and fourth in total.

Published: March 20, 2026, 8:07 pm

Sixteen international games and a franchise overseas: is the NFL’s global ambition good or greed?

Having lapped its rivals in the US landscape, the most powerful American sports league is pushing for supersonic expansion of its calendar and its geography

“Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they’re getting hoggy.” When Mark Cuban, then owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, fired that line at the NFL in 2014, he was partly goading and partly gloating.

It felt directionally true. The NFL looked bloated, arrogant and vulnerable. Decades-long skeletons were tumbling out of the closet. Crisis followed crisis: concussions, Colin Kaepernick, sinister owners, cheating scandals and an almost Nixonian attempt to institute law and order. Youth participation declined. Football felt, if not dying, then at least dated, creaking under the weight of its own mythology.

Published: March 20, 2026, 9:00 am

No Limit: can rap mogul Master P really become an elite basketball coach?

The 55-year-old has is an assistant coach at the University of New Orleans. Now he believes he can take the step up to the top of his sport

You are Arizona State athletics director Graham Rossini, more of a forward-thinking sports executive than a classic campus administrator. The Sun Devils basketball team have just staggered through another middling season, missing the NCAA tournament for a third straight year. You’ve just fired coach Bobby Hurley, but the vacancy isn’t what anyone in the sport would call coveted – not compared to a blue-blood program like Duke or Kentucky, or even the cross-state rival Arizona Wildcats men’s basketball, standard-bearer of the old Pac-10.

You could hire another hardwood hero like Hurley, a Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball supervillain whose winning pedigree as a player surfaced only in flashes over 11 uneven years on the sideline. You could turn to a television retread, someone angling for a return to the bench and a larger stage. You could give some young striver a big break. Or you could do something else entirely – something big and bold: You could give Percy Robert Miller a shot.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

Wheatley leaves Audi and clears path to become Aston Martin team principal

• Jonathan Wheatley set to make switch to troubled team

• Arrival would allow Adrian Newey to change focus

Jonathan Wheatley has left his role as Audi team principal, the Formula One team have confirmed, paving the way for his anticipated switch to the same role at Aston Martin.

Wheatley’s arrival would allow the current Aston Martin principal, Adrian Newey, to return his focus to the technical and design areas in which he excels after the team endured a disastrous start to the new season.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:13 pm

NYU’s historic 91-game unbeaten streak snapped by Scranton in Final Four

• Scranton beat NYU to end three-year win streak

• Violets’ bid for third straight NCAA title falls short

• Peper scores 19 as dynasty run ends in Virginia

New York University’s historic 91-game winning streak is over after a 60-52 loss to Scranton in the Final Four of the Division III NCAA Tournament on Thursday night, ending one of the longest unbeaten runs in college basketball history.

The Violets (29-1) had the second-longest winning streak in NCAA history, trailing only UConn’s 111-game run between 2014 and 2017, and were seeking a third consecutive national championship. Instead, Scranton (32-0) advanced to the title game, holding off a late NYU rally.

Published: March 20, 2026, 1:53 pm

Premier League and Carabao Cup: things to look out for this weekend

Igor Thiago looms over Leeds, Newcastle need to bounce back from Barça and Viktor Gyökeres aims for hero status

• Premier League top scorers: latest top-flight standings

Though Manchester United continued to win after playing brilliantly against Manchester City and Arsenal in Michael Carrick’s first two games as manager, the quality and coherence of their performances decreased thereafter. Lacking balance without the injured Patrick Dorgu, they’ve been rescued on three separate occasion by Benjamin Sesko’s goals – goals that eventually forced him into the team at the expense of Amad Diallo. But though Amad is easier to omit than Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, both of whom are older, dearer and more productive, without him United lacked a dribbler: a player eager to run at opponents, who isn’t necessarily seeking the quickest route to goal, and whose quick feet in tight spaces are invaluable against disciplined defences. It is no coincidence that on his return to the starting XI, against Villa last weekend, United delivered their best display since those early weeks. Sesko’s form will again demand his inclusion at some point soon, but next time it is unlikely to be Amad who makes way. Daniel Harris

Bournemouth v Manchester United, Friday 8pm

Brighton v Liverpool, Saturday 12.30pm

Fulham v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Everton v Chelsea, Saturday 5.30pm

Leeds v Brentford, Saturday 8pm

Newcastle v Sunderland, Sunday 12pm

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:00 am

March Madness: VCU fight back from 19 down to oust UNC in first-round stunner

• Rams overcome 19-point deficit to beat No 6 UNC

• Coach lashes out after High Point stun Wisconsin

• No 1 Duke survive upset scare against No 16 Siena

• Nebraska end NCAA drought with rout of Troy

Terrence Hill Jr made a stepback three-pointer with 15 seconds left in overtime and 11th-seeded VCU erased from a 19-point second-half deficit to stun sixth-seeded North Carolina 82-78 on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Hill finished 7 for 10 from three-point range and scored 20 of 34 points after halftime as VCU (28-7) won their first NCAA Tournament game since 2016.

Published: March 19, 2026, 8:39 pm

CBS News begins new major round of layoffs: ‘This is really hard and really tough’

CBS News Radio to shutter after nearly 100 years as editor Bari Weiss tells staff cuts were ‘necessary’ decision

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CBS News announced it is laying off dozens of employees on Friday and ending CBS News Radio – its nearly 100-year-old radio service – as part of a strategic restructuring.

The news was announced in a memo to staffers from its editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, and president, Tom Cibrowski. Employees will be informed by the end of the day if their job has been affected, the two executives said in the memo.

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:58 pm

Pinterest CEO calls for ban on social media for youth under 16

Bill Ready pointed to Australia’s social media ban for under-16s as a model, though it does not apply to his company

Pinterest’s CEO called on world leaders to ban social media for youth under 16 in a LinkedIn post on Friday.

“We need a clear standard: no social media for teens under 16, backed by real enforcement, and accountability for mobile phone operating systems and the apps that run on them,” Bill Ready wrote. Pinterest, an image-sharing platform, has seen a surge in young users over the past year but has disappointed Wall Street with its quarterly financial reports of late.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:06 pm

UK ministers begin contingency planning amid economic fears over Iran war

Anger grows within cabinet over impact of war begun by Donald Trump, who branded Nato allies ‘cowards’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has branded the UK and other Nato allies “cowards” but anger is growing among cabinet ministers that his war in Iran could jeopardise Britain’s fragile finances.

Senior members of the government are in despair about the potential effects on the economy, with experts warning of higher energy prices and mortgage and borrowing costs.

Published: March 20, 2026, 7:25 pm

Mexico’s monarch butterfly population jumps 64%, offering hope for at-risk species

The insects covered its largest area since 2018, despite threats from habitat loss, climate crisis and pesticides

The population of monarch butterflies in Mexico increased 64% this winter, compared with the same period in 2025, offering a glimmer of hope for an insect considered at risk of extinction.

The figures, released this week by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico, showed that the area occupied by monarchs expanded to 2.93 hectares (7.24 acres) of forest from 1.79 hectares (4.42 acres) the previous winter, the largest coverage since 2018.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:41 pm

Urban Legend director Jamie Blanks dies aged 54

Australian film-maker behind cult horror films including Valentine and 2008’s Long Weekend was known for his pulpy take on hack’n’slash

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The cult Australian film-maker Jamie Blanks has died aged 54. He was best known for Urban Legend, the 1998 horror starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt and Joshua Jackson.

On Friday morning, Blanks’ family issued a statement on X announcing his death:

Published: March 20, 2026, 4:41 pm

Fire experts ‘kept awake’ over growing hazard of lithium-ion batteries

Fire service warns ubiquity of batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations

Lithium-ion batteries represent a new technological hazard that one fire science expert has said keeps him awake at night, as fire service chiefs warn the ubiquity of the batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations.

The blaze that devastated a historic building in Glasgow and resulted in the closure of Central Station, Scotland’s largest rail interchange, is believed to have started in a shop selling vapes, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries. Glasgow’s Central Station has since reopened.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:11 am

Norway’s crown princess says she was ‘deceived’ by Jeffrey Epstein

Mette-Marit says she ‘did not know he was a sex offender’, despite Googling him three years after his prison sentence

Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit, has said she was “manipulated and deceived” by Jeffrey Epstein as she spoke publicly for the first time about her years-long relationship with the late sex offender.

She also claimed that she “did not know he was a sex offender or an abuser” – despite telling him in an email in 2011, three years after he had been sentenced to 18 months in prison and pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from girls as young as 14, that she had recently Googled him.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:36 pm

‘It’s not sustainable’: US farmers reeling as Iran war pushes fertilizer costs up

Closure of strait of Hormuz – a key fertilizer production and transportation route – has squeezed farmers as prices jump

Rodney Bushmeyer has been farming as long as he can remember. Bushmeyer’s father was a farmer, as was his grandfather.

The family-run Bushmeyer Farms in Illinois dates back more than 100 years, when his ancestors came to the US from Germany. They acquired the first 80 acres cost-free as homesteaders, cleared the land, and worked it.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:00 am

‘Hybrid organ’: how a union of trees and fungi could revolutionise forest management

A US startup supplies spray for fast-growing loblolly pines with the hope of increasing biodiversity – and reducing the need for artificial fertiliser

At a commercial tree nursery near Evans, western Louisiana, 5m pine seedlings are packed on to 12 vast circular irrigation tables, each as wide as a football field. Last September, many of these young trees were sprayed with what looked like muddy water.

The substance was in fact a liquid extract teeming with hundreds of species of wild soil fungi. Brad Ouseman, the nursery manager, is confident he will see results from this fungal inoculation, which is intended to improve yields and reduce the need for artificial fertilisers.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Agriculture of life’: the Rio families growing bananas to protect the world’s largest urban forest

In the middle of the city, traditional growers blend crops with native species to preserve Pedra Branca state park’s biodiversity

The sound of the scythes wielded by brothers Jorge and Ubirajara Cardia breaks the silence in the hills of Vargem Grande, in the south-west zone of Rio de Janeiro city. Quilombola from the Cafundá Astrogilda community, they harvest bananas the same way their ancestors used to. Every week, they select the bunches of prata, maçã, and Cavendish bananas, cut them down and, on the back of their mules, go down the hillside with the newly harvested crop.

Through sloping ways in the forest, they travel about 5km (3 miles) along paths first opened by the Indigenous Tupinambá people and enslaved workers of African descent.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:00 am

From black rain to marine pollution, the war in Iran is an environmental disaster

In this week’s newsletter: with US-Israeli strikes hitting oil refineries, military bases and nuclear facilities, monitors are warning that the conflict will have devastating effects

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If the first casualty of war is the truth, the environment can’t come far behind.

The black rain that fell across Tehran two weekends ago was perhaps the most symbolic symptom of a litany of environmental devastation being wrought on Iran by the US-Israeli war machine since the start of the month. As I reported last week, we already know the conflict will have major long-term environmental repercussions.

Revealed: the world’s worst mega-leaks of methane driving global heating

‘Drinking from a fetid pond’: superbug-creating genes found in UK’s largest lake

Butterflies crossing oceans, moths navigating by the stars: unravelling the mysteries of insect migrations

We need to be honest about Iran – and how our rampant greed for oil is causing mayhem | George Monbiot

‘Very damaging’: how the Iran war is hitting energy-intensive industries

Democrats urge windfall tax as big oil set to make billions from Iran war

Published: March 20, 2026, 7:00 am

US health department investigates 13 states that require insurance plans to cover abortion

HHS is looking into the states for ‘alleged disregard of, or confusion about’ the federal Weldon amendment

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The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Thursday that it is investigating 13 states that require state-regulated health insurance plans to cover abortion services.

HHS officials said in a news release that the department’s office for civil rights (OCR) is looking into the states for allegedly violating the federal Weldon amendment, which prohibits federal funding for programs or state or local governments that “subjects any institutional or individual healthcare entity to discrimination on the basis that the healthcare entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions”.

Published: March 20, 2026, 1:40 pm

JP Morgan Chase to use computer estimates to monitor hours worked by junior bankers

Company says tool to compare self-reported hours with computer estimates is for ‘awareness, not enforcement’

• Business live – latest updates

JP Morgan Chase has started to compare the hours junior investment bankers claim to have worked against logs on its IT system.

The US bank said it would begin issuing reports to junior bankers that compare computer-generated estimates of their work weeks against their self-reported time sheets as part of a pilot scheme.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:11 am

Nasa returns moon rocket to pad and targets 1 April launch

After series of delays, US space agency hopes to carry out first crewed flyby of the moon in more than half a century

Nasa has begun returning its towering SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft to its Florida launch pad before a planned flyby of the moon, after completing necessary repairs.

Artemis engineers began the manoeuvre, which can take up to 12 hours, at 8pm local time. The US space agency will then begin the final preparations before its next launch window opens on 1 April.

Published: March 20, 2026, 9:25 am

Meta AI agent’s instruction causes large sensitive data leak to employees

Artificial intelligence agent instructed engineer to take actions that exposed user and company data internally

An AI agent instructed an engineer to take actions that exposed a large amount of Meta’s sensitive data to some of its employees, in the latest example of AI causing upheaval in a large tech company.

The leak, which Meta confirmed, happened when an employee asked for guidance on an engineering problem on an internal forum. An AI agent responded with a solution, which the employee implemented – causing a large amount of sensitive user and company data to be exposed to its engineers for two hours.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:00 am

Eid al-Fitr celebrations herald the end of Ramadan– in pictures

Under the shadow of war in the Middle East, Muslim worshippers around the world unite to celebrate the breaking of the fast

Published: March 20, 2026, 4:29 pm

Senior European journalist suspended over AI-generated quotes

Mediahuis suspends Peter Vandermeersch, who says he ‘fell into trap of hallucinations’, after investigation by newspaper where he was once editor-in-chief

The publisher of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and the Irish Independent has suspended one of its senior journalists after he admitted using AI to “wrongly put words into people’s mouths”.

Peter Vandermeersch, the former head of the Irish operations at Mediahuis, said he “fell into the trap of hallucinations” – the term for AI-generated errors – when using the technology.

Published: March 20, 2026, 4:13 pm

Claimants drop lawsuit against Gerry Adams over IRA bombings

Three people were suing ex-Sinn Féin leader for liability over IRA bombings in UK that left them injured

Three victims of IRA bombings who sued Gerry Adams alleging he was a member of the paramilitary group and culpable for the attacks have withdrawn their lawsuit on the last day of the civil trial.

John Clark, Jonathan Ganesh and Barry Laycock, who were injured respectively in the 1973 Old Bailey bombing and the 1996 London Docklands and Manchester bombings, were seeking symbolic “vindicatory” damages of £1 each.

Published: March 20, 2026, 4:59 pm

Hungary officials ‘gave Ukrainian forced injection’ after raid on bank vehicles

Kyiv sources say they think injection contained relaxant meant to make people more talkative in interrogations

Hungarian security operatives administered a “forced injection” to one of the Ukrainians detained earlier this month during a dramatic raid on bank vehicles carrying gold bars and tens of millions of dollars and euros in cash, sources have told the Guardian.

Hungary’s TEK anti-terrorism police detained seven Ukrainians from the state savings bank, Oschadbank, on 5 March. They were accompanying a convoy of two armoured cars from Vienna to Ukraine, as it transited Hungary in what Kyiv claims was a regular transfer of state funds. Hungarian officials have claimed it was money for the “Ukrainian war mafia”, without giving details.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:18 am

‘Validation was an insatiable monster’: Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters’ punk-rock return – and life after his infidelity

In his first newspaper interview after fathering a child outside his marriage, Grohl discusses his changed outlook, his grief for Taylor Hawkins, and the 430 therapy sessions he’s had

‘I’m just going to recline.” Weighing up the seating options in a luxury London hotel suite, Dave Grohl opts for the sofa. He lays his head and swings his legs round until his black leather boots are resting on the upholstery, and clasps his hands across his stomach. Punk-rock disregard for shoe etiquette aside, it’s the classic pose of the psychoanalysed. “I’ve been in therapy six days a week for 70 weeks,” he says. “I did the math the other day: over 430 sessions.”

Even by US standards, that is a lot – but if anyone needed to work out who they are and why they were doing what they were doing, it was Grohl. Nirvana ended traumatically after the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, but their drummer Grohl quickly formed a new band, Foo Fighters, stepping up to frontman and turning them into the definitive stadium rockers of the new century with hits such as Everlong, Best of You and The Pretender. Grohl was often described as “the nicest man in rock”, a label his team tells me he dislikes, but he was certainly genial and seemed to be settling into middle age with hobbyist projects – documentary series, memoir, horror-comedy film – between a series of world tours and middle-ranking Foo Fighters albums. He had married second wife Jordyn Blum in 2003 and they’d had three daughters together. Bassist Nate Mendel tells me: “When we were first rehearsing in the mid-90s, Dave said: I just want this band to be low-drama, and for it to be fun.”

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:00 am

Don’t mention the M-word: are mutant X-Men about to show up en masse in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

An intriguing chat about warped DNA in the record-breaking trailer for the new Spider-Man movie could mean a host of long-awaited arrivals in the MCU

There was a time when the mere mention of the term “mutant” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was frowned upon. Rival studio 20th Century Fox owned the rights to the X-Men and with it the whole idea of a parallel branch of humanity, which meant superheroes were contractually obliged to have received their powers from somewhere else. Radioactive accidents, experimental serums, infinity stones, the bite of an unusually committed arachnid: Marvel tried them all, but left the mutation thing alone. Occasionally, comic book icons such as Scarlet Witch were retconned in the MCU to remove their X-gene origins, but for the most part, the very notion of mutation seemed to be placed under narrative quarantine – as if this were a door the studio had quietly agreed not to open.

This week saw the record-breaking release of the debut teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it was immediately clear that something had changed. We all know the X-Men are coming to the MCU: Deadpool and Wolverine have already had their own movies, while various mutants have turned up in post-credit scenes and brief multiversal detours. Now Spidey seems to be edging close to the same territory.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:24 pm

Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat review – the episode with the sex toy is stomach turning

A corporate getaway is the new setting for this hoax reality show in which all but one person is an actor. Luckily, that person has a real ‘captain fun’ attitude – even when faced with icky situations

In 2023, Freevee (owned by Amazon) aired Jury Duty, a hoax reality show starring an unsuspecting member of the American public who was unaware that everyone else deciding the outcome of a trial in an LA courthouse alongside him was in fact an actor. It was frequently ridiculous – not least when X-Men actor James Marsden was parachuted in as a member of the jury. It did, however, have a lot of heart, and a lovable mark in the form of Ronald Gladden, a sweet man who blindly followed the “hero’s journey” he was unaware was being meticulously plotted by producers, and who took the eventual reveal very well. Some questioned the ethics of this Truman Show-esque premise, although Gladden seemed fairly undamaged by his accidental fame. Certainly, you imagine that his prize – $100,000 and a two-year deal with Amazon – would have helped to soften any initial feelings of “WTF”.

And so to season two, which retains the Jury Duty brand name but takes place at an annual retreat for Rockin’ Grandma’s hot sauce, a company that – spoiler alert – doesn’t exist. Taking the starring role this time is twentysomething Anthony Norman, an office temp who quickly becomes the company’s most beloved employee. It is, we learn, the final Rockin’ Grandma’s retreat for CEO Doug Womack, who is set to retire and hand over the company to his son, the lackadaisical, cod-Jamaican-accented Dougie, a former ska band member who is somewhere between Chet Hanks and the Dude from The Big Lebowski. Like Gladden before him, Norman is kind and obliging to a fault, and a big fan of organised fun – the perfect candidate to take over the running of the retreat when HR boss Kevin taps out after a humiliating social faux pas. One minute Norman’s the new guy – the next he’s running around in a yachting cap, declaring himself the new “captain fun”. For somebody who thought he was merely taking on a short-term job – and being filmed for a documentary about the corporate world – his seemingly unending reserves of enthusiasm and commitment to the dysfunctional world of Rockin’ Grandma’s are commendable.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:00 am

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come review – comedy horror sequel goes big and you should stay home

There’s even more screaming, running, swearing and exploding rich people in a follow-up to the 2019 sleeper hit that expands mythology we didn’t need expanded

To give 2019’s grating comedy horror Ready or Not some reluctant credit, it did arrive before Trump-era eat-the-rich became an entire, increasingly exhausting subgenre in itself. The film, about a woman finding out her new husband’s wealthy family members are game-playing devil-worshippers, was clearly indebted to/inspired by Get Out, but it landed before The Menu, Blink Twice, Triangle of Sadness, The Hunt, Knives Out, Infinity Pool, Opus and the many, many others, a medal for speed if not much else.

The follow-up has then taken a surprising amount of time, mostly due to the team behind it (directing duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett) being busy with the rebooted Scream franchise as well as toothless vampire dud Abigail, but also one imagines because of the difficulties in extending a film in which everyone, bar final girl, had spontaneously combusted at the end. In a world where both horror and superhero franchises have increasingly started to resemble daytime soaps in their absurd, no-rules-apply plotting (not dead, all a dream, different universe, etc), Ready or Not 2: Here I Come was still inevitable regardless of logic. What’s odd given the seven-year gap is that the second film takes place directly after the first, a la Halloween II, with heroine Grace, played by Samara Weaving, looking noticeably, understandably different.

Published: March 19, 2026, 4:31 pm

‘Our lead actor doesn’t know he’s in a television show!’ The return of an unbelievable TV hoax

Jury Duty’s first season convinced a member of the public he was taking part in a documentary about how courts work – but it was really a reality show where everyone else was actors. Its company retreat-based sequel ups the stakes brilliantly

If ever there was a TV show that you’d think should be left at a single season, it would be Jury Duty.

The Amazon series became a slow-burning, word-of-mouth hit through 2023 for pulling off a frankly unbelievable stunt: successfully convincing one man, Ronald Gladden, that he was taking part in an LA courtroom documentary when, actually, everything about the process was staged and he was the only participant who was not an actor.

Published: March 19, 2026, 1:06 pm

‘We didn’t want to play the game’: how Ladytron became unlikely pop survivors

From electroclash pioneers to dancefloor-fillers via viral TikTok fame thanks to their hit Seventeen, the Liverpool band are back with a new album and another metamorphosis

It was October 2001 in New York City, and Mira Aroyo and bandmate Reuben Wu were invited to DJ a new party. The gritty, 200 capacity Luxx on Brooklyn’s Grand Street specialised in forgotten queer electro sounds from the 1980s. The party’s name? Electroclash.

“It was us, Peaches, people from Berlin,” remembers Aroyo. Larry Tee, the Atlanta DJ and RuPaul collaborator, had booked them for their love of overlooked gems by Gina X or Bobby O. “It was hedonistic, nonbinary, flamboyant.”

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:55 pm

BTS: Arirang review – the world’s biggest pop band return with dumb fun and downright weirdness

(Big Hit Music)
Ending a hiatus that began in 2022, the septet recapture a distinctiveness that had been threatening to ebb away

The general consensus seems to be that as BTS’s commercial stock has gone stratospheric – more than 500m units sold worldwide, including over 104bn streams, making them the bestselling Asian act of all time – the actual music has become more and more irrelevant. Before taking their hiatus in 2022 to fulfil their mandatory military service in South Korea, their saccharine, English-language bops such as Dynamite and Butter – while gargantuan global hits – had smothered the K-pop-specific idiosyncrasies that peppered their earlier material. By 2020’s double whammy of Map of the Soul: 7 and Be, the band’s early years as a hip-hop-focused collective were a distant memory, and thanks to a more westernised sound and studio cast list, so was their identity as a Korean act.

On the eagerly anticipated Arirang – pointedly named after a Korean folk song dating back to 1896, and presented with the tagline “born in Korea, playing for the world” – the septet do their best to right those wrongs. Crucially, it manages to capture the K-pop spirit of experimentation while welding it to a litany of memorable hooks. And when western collaborators are brought in, they’re interestingly off-kilter, including outsider rapper-producer Jpegmafia, and producer El Guincho, known for his work with Björk and Rosalía.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:29 pm

Add to playlist: the sharply observed electro-twee of the Femcels and the week’s best new tracks

Following in the footsteps of Heavenly and Tiger Trap the duo’s high-tempo electroclash-indie-pop deftly explores young womanhood in 2020s London

From London
Recommended if you like Heavenly, CSS, the Teenagers
Up next I Have to Get Hotter out now

The Femcels’ music is euphoric and depressive, sometimes ironic but mostly sincere, often high-tempo, and all delivered with wired, unvarnished vocals. In that sense, it is 80s and 90s twee reincarnate; move past their band’s shitposty name and you’ll find that Rowan Miles and Gabriella Turton have a lot to offer when it comes to exploring the chills and thrills of young womanhood in 2020s London.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:00 pm

Grace Ives: Girlfriend review – bedroom-pop auteur goes widescreen for a gorgeous sobriety epic

(True Panther/Capitol)
The New Yorker’s third album leaves behind her DIY origins to channel cult pop classics by Lorde and Sky Ferreira

New Yorker Grace Ives broke out as a bedroom pop artist, self-producing 2nd, her 2019 debut, on her Roland MC-505 and carefully expanding her sound for 2022’s appealingly messy Janky Star. Her third album abandons caution in windswept, hyperdetailed songs that streak by like big city streetlights and shimmer with cosmic awe.

Ives escaped her bedroom in more than one sense. Janky Star reflected her development of a healthier relationship to substances, yet she hit new lows after its release, making sobriety non-negotiable. She went to write in California, finding safety in a fresh context rather than trying to change alone at home. Her determination and vulnerability fuel Girlfriend, which shares the conspiratorial sweetness and broken-mirror glitter of cult pop classics by Lorde (Melodrama) and Sky Ferreira (Night Time, My Time).

Published: March 20, 2026, 9:30 am

Chain of Ideas by Ibram X Kendi review – anatomy of a conspiracy theory

This careful analysis of so-called ‘great replacement theory’ offers a lens through which to view our broken politics

Informationsüberflutung? Weltschmerz? I’ve been searching and I don’t think even the Germans have a word that fully captures just how overwhelming the news cycle is right now. The zone has been well and truly flooded; just as you start trying to process one shocking event, something new hits the headlines.

Chain of Ideas, a new book by professor Ibram X Kendi, doesn’t provide a one-world encapsulation of our modern woes. But, in a meticulously researched 500 pages, it lays out an essential framework for parsing current events.

Published: March 20, 2026, 7:00 am

The Names author Florence Knapp: ‘I’d love to write with Maya Angelou’s warmth’

The debut author on the brilliance of Charlotte Brontë, coming late to Harper Lee, and aspiring to write like Claire Keegan

My earliest reading memory
The summer I was four, my mum read EB White’s Charlotte’s Web to me and my older sister. I don’t recall much of the story, only that my mum was unable to go on reading through her tears. And when a relative took over, after just a few pages, she too had to pass the book on, this time to my father to try and finish dry-eyed. That afternoon, at a subconscious, cellular level, I absorbed something about the emotional impact a well-told story can have on both children and adults, and how it can gather everyone to the same imagined space.

My favourite book growing up
I loved Shirley Hughes’s books, for the pictures as much as the words. Her illustrations of unmade beds and busy kitchen tables invite you right into the heart of family life and were a reassuringly cosy backdrop to whatever drama might unfold. Moving Molly was a favourite, and stoked a lifelong nostalgia for the details that make a place home.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

The Barbecue at No 9 by Jennie Godfrey audiobook review – secrets and lies in suburbia

Gemma Whelan and Stephen Mangan are among the cast in this multi-voiced tale of family tensions and trauma, set during the 1985 Live Aid charity concert

It is July 1985, two days before Live Aid, the historic charity concert taking place simultaneously in London and Philadelphia to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Goth teenager Hanna Gordon has been asked by her mother, Lydia, to distribute invitations to their neighbours for a get-together at their house “in aid of the children”. Hanna suspects Lydia’s intentions may not be entirely charitable and that she wants to show off their new barbecue. Hanna’s longsuffering dad, Peter, isn’t keen, complaining “it’ll cost a fortune to feed the whole bloody street”.

Hanna, who is keeping a secret from her family, may be mortified at her mother’s party plans but she nonetheless does what she asks, delivering the invitations around their suburban cul-de-sac while only dimly aware of a mysterious figure lurking in the shadows. When Lydia spots the same figure a day later skulking in their garden, it is clear something is afoot on Delmont Close.

Published: March 19, 2026, 3:00 pm

A Queer Inheritance by Michael Hall review – the National Trust’s LGBTQ history revealed

It’s recently been accused of turning ‘woke’ – but the institution has been gay since the beginning, argues this deeply researched book

When it emerged that the National Trust had put vegan scones on the menu, it was seized on by some newspapers as a marmalade dropper – or strawberry jam dropper, perhaps – proof that the institution was woke. Wait until they hear about all the queer men and women who helped to make the Trust what it is today. The charity’s 5.4 million members and others visit its grand piles for a nice day out and a tea towel, unaware that they are surrounded by the ghosts of these figures. They are brought to life by Michael Hall, a former architecture editorof Country Life and author of books on Waddesdon Manor and the gothic revival in Britain.

Some of them, such as the buttoned-up Henry James, who lived at Lamb House, Rye, merely lent their lustre to properties that were later taken over by the trust. Others introduced features to the estates that continue to delight trippers to this day. They include Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, partners in a lavender marriage, who created the gardens at Sissinghurst, appropriately enough.

Published: March 19, 2026, 9:00 am

Resident Evil at 30: how Capcom’s horror opus has survived and thrived

From owing a debt to obscure Japanese horror Sweet Home to the influence of Aliens and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the franchise continues to petrify players three decades on

To many of us playing and writing about video games in the 1990s, Resident Evil seemed to come out of nowhere. The emerging PlayStation and Saturn consoles were all about slick, bright arcade conversions – the shiny thrills of Daytona and Tekken – and Japanese publisher Capcom was in a rut of coin-op conversions and endless sequels to Street Fighter and Mega Man. Scary games were rare at the time and mostly confined to the PC. So when the news of a horror title named Biohazard (the Japanese name for the series) started to emerge in 1995, it caught the attention of games journalists as it seemed radically out of step with prevailing trends. Games were about power, but as early demos quickly revealed, Resident Evil was about vulnerability.

Thirty years later, it’s still here. The series has sold more than 180m copies worldwide, with 11 core titles and dozens of spinoffs and remakes, as well as film, television and anime tie-ins. Its characters and monsters are icons, its tropes now embedded in game design practice. What has allowed it to not only survive but flourish in such a rapidly changing industry? Why do we still let it scare us?

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

In the killer world of online gaming, there are no hits any more – just survivors

The fates of two ostensibly similar online games released this year, Marathon and Highguard, prove that success is becoming close to unattainable

What does success look like for developers of online video games? In 2026, the answer could not be clearer: no one has a clue.

Consider Highguard, 2026’s first big flop. Signs were promising on its launch on 26 January, with a peak of 100,000 concurrent players on Steam – plus those enjoying the game on PlayStation and Xbox, which do not make player counts public. As a free-to-play game, the barrier to entry for Highguard was low. And thanks to a prime advertising placement at the end of December’s The Game Awards – a buzzy spot usually reserved for known hitmakers, not free-to-play upstarts – curiosity was high.

Published: March 19, 2026, 12:30 pm

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump Pearl Harbor joke: ‘Everything he knows about it begins and ends with the Ben Affleck movie’

Late-night hosts panned Trump’s joke about the 1941 attack, addressed new unredacted Epstein emails and talked popular puppy names

With The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on hiatus until at least 27 March, late-night hosts on Thursday discussed Donald Trump’s snafu while meeting Japan’s prime minister, his caginess over Iran, and new findings in the Epstein investigations.

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:40 pm

The Oscars red carpet was in a skip. Then a woman took it home for her flat. What else could be repurposed?

A dumpster-diving TikToker struck gold the morning after the Academy Awards. But why are they binning carpets after one brief use? And where can we find the uneaten chocolate Oscars?

The Oscars are over, and the world has moved on. No longer are we debating the merits of any particular film, or the validity of any given win. Now there are only two sets of people who care about the Oscars; the agents of the winners, who are all busy renegotiating their clients’ contracts, and amateur Los Angeles-based carpet fitter Paige Thalia.

Thalia found a small amount of viral fame this week, after she discovered the Oscars red carpet languishing in a skip the morning after the ceremony, and decided to kit out her home with it.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:00 am

A bust of Barbra Streisand and beautiful memories: Richard E Grant’s garden – in seven extraordinary items

The actor has played many classic roles and his love of film is clear in his garden, from the Saltburn proscenium arch to the pergola where Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd have partied the night away

Step into Richard E Grant’s garden in Richmond, London, and you’ll be met with a rather unconventional sight. Instead of the daffodils and tulips you’d usually find in an English garden at this time of year, Grant’s space is full of props and decorations from the films he’s starred in – from Saltburn to Carrie Cracknell’s 2022 adaptation of Persuasion.

After any job, he says, “I go to the production department and try and buy or bribe my way” to get pieces to put in his garden. The space has, until now, been a private spot for Grant to entertain his actor friends. But now he has shared it with the world as part of the Royal Horticultural Society’s new podcast, Roots. I took a look around it – here are some of the weird and wonderful things that can be found there.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:00 am

Matisse, 1941-1954 review – hit after glorious hit in a show of life-enhancing genius

Grand Palais, Paris
An epic collection of the artist’s final 13 years of work explodes with the stunning colours and spiky cutouts that redefined art

Forget the joy and energy of youth – your best days might yet be ahead. Henri Matisse’s were, even when he barely made it out of surgery alive in his early 70s as war was breaking out across France. Sitting in his wheelchair, his hand wobblier and weaker than ever, his body scarcely able to muster the strength to stand and paint, he reinvented himself and reshaped modern art in the process.

Centre Pompidou and the Grand Palais’ huge exploration of the last years of Matisse’s life – from his surgery in 1941 to his death in 1954 – is a dizzying, joyous celebration of colour, form, line, light and then a whole bunch more colour. It’s so good, so beautiful, so totally overwhelming. It was always bound to be – it’s Matisse, with all the resources of France’s vast collection of Matisse works. It’s a show full of hits.

Published: March 20, 2026, 1:22 pm

Experience: I’ve been on more than 2,000 hot-air balloon flights in 124 countries

I loved Tanzania – we flew over hungry lions in a national park

I can still remember my first flight, in 2002. It was magical. I was working as a tour guide in Myanmar. I met a British balloon pilot called Phil, who had a spare place on a flight. He offered to take me, too.

I don’t particularly enjoy flying in planes, but this was different. We floated gently with the wind, out in the open air. There was no turbulence. It was so serene and picturesque as we flew over temples. I immediately fell in love with ballooning.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:00 am

Reheated rivalry: why I’m the champion of leftovers

Bringing food back to life is a great kitchen skill. No, you can’t just microwave it

There is nothing lovelier than seeing a cook do their thing. By “doing their thing”, I do not mean just going about kitchen work – that is often excruciating to watch (why are they cutting onions like that?) I mean doing their thing: their culinary equivalent of a Mastermind subject, that one dish or process that they do so well, and with such evident pride, that the most crotchety backseat cook is forced to shut up.

Take my partner’s method for making fish-finger sandwiches, which involves frying the fish fingers in butter, then creating an in-pan sweatbox to melt artisanal cheese on to them and custom blending condiments. It creates, on average, as much washing up as a full cooked dinner. Others have a special pancake hack or carrot cake recipe, and people tend not to let these things go unnoticed – it’s always my salad dressing, possessive, but we forgive their hubris, because each of us has “A Thing” of our own.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

I asked my husband for five minutes of uninterrupted eye contact. It was harder than expected

A happiness researcher called prolonged eye contact ‘the best thing ever’, claiming it can bring couples closer. Does it really work?

In January, business professor and happiness researcher Arthur C Brooks appeared on the Modern Wisdom podcast to offer advice on optimizing morning and evening routines. His tips seemed reasonable – think exercising early and no alcohol before bed. Then, for couples, he made a kookier suggestion: every night before going to sleep, spend five minutes holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes.

“This is the best thing ever,” he enthuses, explaining that it can help with mood management and to strengthen your relationship.

Published: March 19, 2026, 4:00 pm

You be the judge: should my boyfriend hold my hand in public?

Chantelle would like Hugo to show more affection when they are out. You decide who is being touchy
• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

Friends and family have noticed that we don’t hold hands and it’s become a running joke

I find holding hands annoying. Besides, I’m quite caring and I tell her I love her on a daily basis

Published: March 19, 2026, 8:00 am

Too many, bro? Broaching the subject of men’s lapel messaging at the Oscars

All the talk on red carpet night was of leading guys such as Adrien Brody and Leonardo DiCaprio flashing the bling

While the eyes might be the window to the soul, lapels are certainly doing some talking. On the Oscars red carpet last Sunday night, Hollywood’s leading men flashed a lot of bling on their suits.

From Adrien Brody who wore an astronomically large brooch titled Ulysses, arguably as big as the James Joyce tome is thick, to a clean-shaven Pedro Pascal, who distracted from his newly bare chin with a silk and feather Chanel Camélia brooch, lapels were vying for the spotlight.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:29 pm

Forget daffs – it’s edible alliums like wild garlic that spell spring in the garden for me

You can pep up your cooking by growing wild garlic, crow garlic and three-cornered leek

Unlike most gardeners, I’m not especially captivated by spring bulbs. I do love that they symbolise the return of fairer weather, but I only have the tulips and narcissi that I adopted when we moved here and, every autumn, I fail to consider planting more to replenish their dwindling numbers. Lucky for me, I also adopted the kind of spring bulb that I’m more inclined towards – because they’re edible. Wild alliums are what I’m really looking for to herald the arrival of spring.

Too many edible wild plants are only edible in theory, in my opinion. I’m mostly of the “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” school of foraging. But that’s not the case when it comes to the most well-known member of this wild allium group. The strongly flavoured leaves of wild garlic (Allium ursinum) cover the woodland floor wherever they are resident, producing clusters of white, star-shaped flowers that are edible too – but leave most of them for the pollinators please! I’m a big fan of this delectable plant and am fortunate enough that it has made a home in my front garden. As with all foraging endeavours, make sure you’re 100% certain you have identified the plant correctly, pick where you are allowed, and always leave plenty behind. Fortunately, when it comes to this group of plants, it’s fairly easy to know if you have gone wrong as all the leaves should smell strongly of and taste like garlic or onions.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:00 am

Stir-fries, crab cakes and carbonara: Georgina Hayden’s crab recipes

Sweet and delicate crab is a taste of spring. Here are five dishes perfect for lighter, sunnier days

It’s hard not to be excited by the arrival of spring and all the produce that will soon be gracing our kitchens. Asparagus, spinach and new potatoes can’t come soon enough, but it’s not just fruit and vegetables that I count down the days for – there’s plenty of seafood to celebrate too, and in particular crab. Sweet and delicate, its freshness mirrors the arrival of brighter, sunnier days. If you’re lucky enough to pick through a fresh crab, then it needs very little in way of adornment – a squeeze of lemon perhaps, and warm bread and salty butter. Thankfully for the time-poor among us, you can also buy pots of it pre-cooked and picked, which is glorious lightly spiced in a dip or for folding through pasta. However you decide to enjoy crab, though, make sure it is allowed to sing.

Published: March 19, 2026, 12:00 pm

Crossbreed dogs show more behavioural problems than pure breeds, study suggests

Research finds cockapoo, cavapoo and labradoodle dogs display more undesirable behaviours than breeds they derive from

The UK has oodles of doodles but a study might offer paws for thought: researchers have found some of these designer crossbreed dogs show more behavioural problems than the pure breeds from which they derive.

Crosses between poodles and other dog breeds have become increasingly popular in the UK, with research suggesting the trend is – at least in part – driven by the expectation such dogs will be hypoallergenic, healthy and good with children.

Published: March 19, 2026, 12:01 am

‘It does feel like an intimidation campaign’: why is US tech giant Palantir suing a small Swiss magazine?

An investigation by journalists working with Republik magazine may have struck a nerve by suggesting the company has failed in Switzerland

It was over beers on an autumn evening in Zurich in 2024 that a group of journalists with an independent Swiss research collective began to discuss investigating Palantir, one of the world’s biggest tech companies.

Three years earlier, Palantir had advertised that it was setting up a “European hub” in the Swiss municipality of Altendorf, a sleepy town of roughly 7,000 people on the shores of Lake Zurich.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:00 am

Why is the FBI buying people’s location data and how is it using the information?

FBI director revealed agency had resumed buying private information en masse in possible constitutional violation

Kash Patel’s disclosure on Wednesday that the FBI has resumed buying location data on Americans has many people, including members of Congress, wondering: how does private information get into the hands of the US government in the first place – and how can federal law enforcement use that information to track peoples’ whereabouts?

Federal law enforcement agencies generally must obtain a warrant, which requires establishing probable cause in the eyes of a judge, to gather historical or real-time cellphone location data. The US supreme court has ruled that the fourth amendment to the US constitution, which protects against “unreasonable search and seizure”, prohibits the warrantless collection of individuals’ location histories. Buying such information, usually en masse, can circumvent this requirement, leading many privacy advocates to label the practice unconstitutional.

Published: March 19, 2026, 10:30 pm

Buzz kill: US breweries shutter as fanfare over craft beers appears to fade

Covid-related downturns and reductions in alcohol consumption have taken a toll on a once booming industry

In the early 2000s, Chris Bell, then a student at University of Colorado Boulder, followed a common path among people interested in brewing beer. He started doing so at home, then spent years working at established craft beer makers Long Trail Brewing in Vermont and Avery Brewing in Colorado before opening Call to Arms Brewing Company in 2015 in Denver.

In a crowded market, the business was successful. Its More Like Bore-O-Phyll beer won a gold medal in the fresh or wet hop ale category at the 2018 World Beer Cup. A local outlet called it one of the city’s best breweries, and it had a 4.7 rating from more than 400 reviews on Google.

Published: March 19, 2026, 12:00 pm

People aged under 25: are you still looking for a job after a year of unemployment?

We are looking to speak to young people including university graduates, school leavers who didn’t go on to higher education, and those who took up apprenticeships

Are you under 25 and still looking for a job after a year of unemployment? If so, we would like to speak to you.

The latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics showed unemployment increased to 5.2% in the final quarter of 2025, the highest rate since the start of 2021. Young people have been bearing the brunt of this rise, with 16% of those aged 16-24 unemployed, nearly an 11-year-high.

Published: March 19, 2026, 4:17 pm

K-pop drones and a golf-course kangaroo: photos of the day – Friday

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

Published: March 20, 2026, 3:16 pm