Oakland homicides fall to 25-year low – how did it stem the violence?

Despite Trump’s claims, California city has found success in lowering deadly violence, thanks to pioneering efforts to steer people down a different path

In the summer of 2025, as Donald Trump rolled out his plan to deploy the national guard to Washington DC and Chicago, he suggested other American cities were overrun with violence and could soon see federal troops: Memphis, Los Angeles, New York.

Oakland, the president argued, was beyond saving. “And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. They’re so far gone. We don’t even talk about that any more,” Trump said.

Published: March 16, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘How can I do better?’: Michael B Jordan’s Oscar win for Sinners is a deserved reward for an outstanding actor

From The Wire to Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, the Academy award winner has amassed a body of work that straddles commercial and critical success
• Oscar winners 2026: the full list
• Sinners’ Oscar triumphs show that Black cinema is now a vital and valid part of Hollywood

Michael B Jordan’s best actor Oscar places him in an exclusive club. Only five black actors have won the award before. He now sits on a list that includes Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington and Sidney Poitier, the first black winner for Lilies of the Field in 1964.

But less than a month ago, it seemed unlikely. Jordan’s success at the Actors awards was the first serious hint that he could beat Timothée Chalamet, who had won at the Golden Globes and was the frontrunner for much of the awards campaign. But Chalamet, who made a few missteps on the campaign trail, was up against one of the most well-loved actors operating in Hollywood. Jordan is someone who at only 39 years old has managed to amass a body of work that straddles commercial and critical success.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:41 pm

I work with human trafficking survivors. Rich men like Bill Gates can do more to make amends for their Epstein ties | Bridgette Carr

Apologies won’t help the survivors still living with the echoes of abuse. But wealthy people have the resources to make a real impact

Years before there was a call for transparency with the Epstein files, I spent months reading the documents. Not the headlines – the documents: the emails, the financial records, the human suffering, and the internal communications that mapped how one man’s wealth and power built an ecosystem of exploitation that operated for decades. As a sex trafficking expert for more than 15 years, I’ve witnessed many men who abused their power and the system, but rarely have I seen wealth weaponized so effectively and for so long.

I read the files because I served as the expert witness for the US Virgin Islands in its litigation against JPMorgan Chase, which alleged that the bank maintained a financial relationship with Epstein despite evidence of his sex trafficking. The case ended in a 2023 settlement; the bank did not admit wrongdoing. I reviewed the messages from men with power and wealth in Epstein’s orbit. I saw what they said, what they didn’t say, and what they saw and didn’t see.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:00 am

Iowa State’s Audi Crooks is a velveteen unicorn – and March’s biggest matchup problem

Crooks is one of college basketball’s most fascinating stars, blending power and touch in a throwback game that could carry the Cyclones deep into March

The basketball gods really have a thing for Iowa. First came Caitlin Clark at the University of Iowa, a scoring sensation who dominated headlines and sparked cultural debates. Now, the state’s other major college program, Iowa State, has been blessed with Audi Crooks – a thunderclap in her own right.

Where Clark dazzled the masses with moon ball shots and moxie off the dribble, Crooks is the kind of talent that makes other players of stature sit up and take notice, the junior center with a feel beyond her years. A 6ft 3in ballast in the paint, Crooks belongs to a protected class of hooper, the velveteen giant – post players who win with touch as much as brute force.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Like a DVD in the present tense’: are we ready for film distribution via USB drives?

As big tech continues to dominate the film industry, Video StoreAge is a uniquely crafted company that works with film-makers to sell independent films on USB drives

The streaming-skeptical cinephile faces a dilemma in 2026, especially when it comes to watching movies at home. Increasingly, movies are available via rentals that funnel money to mega-corporations including Amazon or Apple; digital “purchases” from those same companies that can actually be revoked at any moment; or, most enticingly but still somewhat inconveniently, well-curated physical media special editions that treat films with the respect they deserve (sometimes even respect they don’t, depending on the title) while taking up a lot of shelf space and hitting your wallet hard. Plus, as vinyl aficionados know, bespoke physical media can also be severely limited in terms of where you can actually play it. Basically, almost everyone in the home-video space is trying to either be Amazon or the Criterion Collection.

Ash Cook, the former Sundance programmer who founded the new distributor Video StoreAge (pronounced like “storage”), is trying to figure out a third way. He described Video StoreAge’s products – indie movies sold on USB drives – as “like a DVD in the present tense. It’s a way to have a physical copy of a movie, but in this case you can play it on your computer. It has digital utility.” Like almost anything else these days, Video StoreAge is available as a subscription, with quarterly collections of five features and five shorts. The first drop includes Vera Drew’s buzzed-about The People’s Joker, a homemade superhero comedy that reappropriates many elements of the Batman mythos into a trans coming-out story. (Honestly, it’s more fun than those Joaquin Phoenix movies and might understand the Joker character better, too.) But they also sell single films, including Drew’s, or any combinations of available films as a sort of digital indie-movie mix tape on those format-flexible USB drives. (The quarter’s shorts package is included with every movie regardless, an automatic special feature.)

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:40 pm

Marty not so supreme: where did it all go wrong for Timothée Chalamet at this year’s Oscars?

Audiences were gradually turned off by the Marty Supreme actor during his Oscars campaign trail, with the growing sensation that he was more like his smirking, fame-hungry character than they first imagined
• Oscar winners 2026: the full list
• Key takeaways from Oscars 2026

Has any actor worked so hard with such little result as Timothée Chalamet this Oscars campaign? When everything is totted up, the tally will surely suggest so: thousands of air miles and tiny orange ping-pong balls expended, but no gold statuette, as both he and his film Marty Supreme were shut out entirely of this year’s Academy Awards.

For so long Chalamet’s grand tour looked a work of wide-eyed gonzo genius. It started with a “leaked” Zoom call comedy skit where the 30-year-old pitched increasingly absurd promotional ideas for his new film Marty Supreme – breakfast cereal tie-ins! Blimps! Painting the Eiffel tower the same violent orange as the ping-pong balls in the film! – to an audience of nervously nodding marketing execs. The skit was preposterous, sure, but also a tiny bit predictive of the actual campaign. The Eiffel tower might not have been painted orange, but the blimp took off, and so did Chalamet. Broadcast across every medium, from Insta to old-fashioned network TV, appearing in just about every country, aimed at every audience – sports bros, thespians, fans of half-forgotten, foghorn-voiced talent show winners – he projected a confident ubiquity dialled down just a few notches from his character: brilliant, striving, a little insufferable.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:09 am

Middle East crisis live: Trump seeks to delay summit with China’s Xi amid Iran war; US embassy in Baghdad reportedly targeted in air attack

Trump says delay of ‘a month or so’ requested while key official insists move is not to pressure Beijing to help unblock strait of Hormuz; Iraqi officials say drones and rockets attacked embassy

• European countries reject Trump’s call for help to reopen strait of Hormuz

• How have you been affected by the latest Middle East events?

• Are fuel price increases making you cut back?

Operations at the United Arab Emirates’ Shah gas field remained suspended on Tuesday after a drone attack, while a fresh attack caused a fire in the Fujairah oil industry zone.

No injuries were reported in either incident, the local media offices said.

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:11 am

Trump draws backlash for comment on Iran war: ‘Maybe we shouldn’t even be there’

President made contradictory comment to reporters on Air Force One after pleading with allies to help US secure strait of Hormuz

• Middle East crisis – live updates

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Donald Trump drew a backlash on Sunday for suggesting US efforts to protect the strait of Hormuz were unnecessary – and that “maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all” because his country has plenty of oil of its own.

The president made the contradictory comment to reporters on Air Force One after pleading with European and Nato allies to enter the war against Iran to help the US secure the strait amid the largest oil supply disruption in history.

Published: March 16, 2026, 2:28 pm

Federal judge blocks RFK Jr’s overhaul of vaccine recommendations

Unprecedented changes to routine US immunization recommendations ‘arbitrary and capricious’, court says

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The appointment of a controversial slate of vaccine advisers by Robert F Kennedy Jr likely violated federal law, and all votes taken by the committee over the past year have been stayed, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

The advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) is not able to meet later this week, since its membership has been invalidated, the judge said. The meeting has been postponed, an HHS official said.

Published: March 16, 2026, 8:37 pm

Trump predicts US will have ‘honour of taking Cuba’ amid power blackout

US president declares he can do ‘anything I want’ after oil blockade plunges country into darkness

Donald Trump expects to have “the honour of taking Cuba”, he declared, after a US-imposed oil blockade plunged the country into darkness under a total power blackout.

The US president claimed on Monday that he could do “anything I want” with Cuba, amid US negotiations with Havana over the country’s future.

Published: March 17, 2026, 1:00 am

Thousands of flights canceled as winter storm marches across US

Storm system dumps snow in midwest and threatens east coast with high winds and possible ‘long-track tornadoes’

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A late winter storm continued a destructive, elemental march across the eastern US, with thousands of flights canceled or delayed as powerful winds combined with a partial government shutdown delayed travelers passing through airport security scanners.

Flight delays and cancellations mounted at some of the nation’s largest airports, including in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. Flight delays within, into, or out of the US totaled 9,112 by late afternoon, with cancellations standing at 4,763, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:23 pm

Trump seeks to delay China summit as Vance denies ‘wedge’ over Iran war

Pair attempt to strike united front amid reports vice-president skeptical over US-Israeli attack on Iran

Donald Trump revealed that he had asked China to delay his forthcoming visit to Beijing while the war with Iran was continuing, as he attempted to strike a united front on Monday with his vice-president JD Vance, who is believed to have been skeptical over attacking Tehran’s regime.

Appearing together with Vance for the first time in two weeks, Trump said he did not think the conflict – which started on 28 February after the US and Israel opened hostilities – would be over this week but predicted victory would be achieved soon.

Published: March 16, 2026, 11:52 pm

Kennedy Center board votes to close for two years during renovations

Trustees approve Trump’s $257m ‘revitalization project’ to remake DC arts institution that president has taken over

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The Kennedy Center board of trustees unanimously voted on Monday in favor of a controversial plan to temporarily shutter the arts institution for renovations, rubber-stamping a $257m project initiated by Donald Trump to remake the arts institution in line with other grand plans for Washington.

In a statement, the center said it had voted for “a comprehensive revitalization project” lasting two years that would come after an Independence Day celebration in July, with “a grand re-opening to follow”.

Published: March 16, 2026, 8:42 pm

Supreme court to consider Trump push to end protection status for Haitians and Syrians

Conservative-majority court sided with administration before and lifted protections for 600,000 Venezuelans

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The supreme court will hear arguments over the Trump administration’s push to end legal protections for people fleeing war and natural disaster from countries around the world, including Haiti and Syria.

The justices refused to immediately lift the protections for hundreds of thousands of people Monday, allowing them to live and work in the US legally for now.

Published: March 16, 2026, 9:10 pm

Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of deadly strike on Kabul hospital

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman says death toll has reached 400 people ‘so far’ as Islamabad denies targeting facility for drug addicts

Hundreds were feared dead after a strike on a hospital treating drug users in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which officials from Afghanistan blamed on the Pakistani military.

Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the death toll from the strike had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured. He said most of those killed and wounded were patients undergoing treatment at the facility.

Published: March 17, 2026, 1:08 am

Utah woman who wrote book on grief after husband’s death found guilty of murdering him

Prosecutors say Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that he drank

A Utah woman was convicted on Monday of aggravated murder after poisoning her husband with fentanyl and then self-publishing a children’s book about coping with grief.

Prosecutors said Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of the synthetic opioid into a cocktail that her husband Eric Richins drank in March 2022.

Published: March 17, 2026, 3:59 am

California highway patrol officer charged with murder over crash that killed four

Angelo Rodriguez accused of hitting car and leaving scene, leading to deaths of quartet in second crash moments later

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A California highway patrol officer has been charged with second-degree murder for his role in a fatal crash last summer, prosecutors announced on Monday.

Angelo Rodriguez, 24, was charged with second-degree murder after crashing into a civilian vehicle while driving at high speeds in Norwalk, said Los Angeles county district attorney Nathan Hochman at a press conference.

Published: March 16, 2026, 9:09 pm

Trump news at a glance: president threatens allies for not wading into strait of Hormuz as Iran conflict continues

US president wants countries to help police the strait after Iran effectively closed the vital fossil fuel shipping channel – key US politics stories from Monday 16 March at a glance

Key US allies in Europe and beyond have ruled out sending warships to the strait of Hormuz, despite threats from Donald Trump that Nato faces “a very bad future” if members fail to help reopen the vital waterway.

The UK, Germany, France and Italy, along with Australia and Japan, have said they had no plans to send warships.

Published: March 17, 2026, 1:10 am

Trump asks China if visit to Beijing can be delayed a month due to Iran war

US president had earlier hinted trip could be put on hold if President Xi does not help unblock the strait of Hormuz

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Trump has asked to delay his planned visit to Beijing by about a month due to the Iran war, after earlier hinting he might put the trip off if his prospective hosts do not help to unblock the strait of Hormuz.

The US president’s summit with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, was meant to take place at the end of March but Trump told reporters in the White House on Monday: “Because of the war I want to be here, I have to be here, I feel. And so we’ve requested that we delay it a month or so.”

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:17 pm

Gregory Bovino, who led Minnesota operation, says he’s retiring end of March

Bovino was demoted in January as head of controversial and deadly immigration crackdown in Minneapolis

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Gregory Bovino of the US border patrol, who was demoted in late January as the public face of the controversial and deadly immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, says he is retiring at the end of March.

Bovino announced his retirement in an interview with Breitbart on Monday, weeks after federal immigration agents fatally shot 37-year-old US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good to death in separate cases in January.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:59 pm

Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles diagnosed with breast cancer

Wiles, 68, praised by president as ‘one of the strongest people I know’, to continue working while having treatment

Susie Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer but plans to continue working while undergoing treatment.

The 68-year-old revealed on Monday that the illness had been detected in the past week. Both she and Donald Trump struck an optimistic tone, saying doctors expect a strong recovery.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:37 pm

Violence against Asian communities in the US spiked after Covid. What happened to the movement to stop it?

Five years after the deadly Atlanta spa shootings sparked protests and policy changes, Stop Asian Hate is at a crossroads in Trump’s second term

Five years ago, a gunman went on a shooting rampage at three Atlanta-area spas, killing eight people, six of whom were Asian women. The brazen attacks on 16 March 2021 sent shock waves through Asian communities already under siege from a surge in violence during the pandemic.

The shooting – following a spate of attacks targeting Asian seniors – sparked protests, mutual aid organizing and sweeping policy changes. For a moment, Stop Asian Hate looked poised to become the social justice movement of the 2020s.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:22 pm

Could Trump blow up Nato over Iran war? – The Latest

Donald Trump is pressuring European allies to protect the strait of Hormuz, warning that Nato faces a ‘very bad’ future if members fail to offer assistance. The strait of Hormuz is one of the most important shipping routes in the world. A fifth of international oil supplies pass through this waterway, which has been disrupted since the start of the war. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:17 pm

Aipac: toxicity of pro-Israel Super Pac’s money to be tested in US primaries

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee has funneled $13.7m through Super Pacs into Tuesday’s Illinois primaries

Four Democratic congressional primaries in and around Chicago on Tuesday have turned into the most expensive test yet of a question the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) would rather not answer: what happens when your money is so toxic you have to pretend it isn’t yours?

Aipac, one of Washington’s most powerful lobbying forces supporting Israel, and affiliated political action committees have spent at least $13.7m across four Illinois races, according to an investigation by WBEZ, Chicago’s public radio station, funneling it through a pair of Super Pacs so determined to hide their origins that they don’t mention Israel once in their ads, with anodyne-sounding names: Elect Chicago Women, and Affordable Chicago Now.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Arms and legs are very expressive, especially with bruises’: the absurdist photography of Yorgos Lanthimos

Ditched washing machines, a woman’s bare leg, the back of Willem Dafoe’s head … the Oscar-nominated director talks us through his new photography show in Athens – made with his darkroom assistant Emma Stone

In the centre of Athens, a brand new temple has popped up. Walk around the tall white columns surrounding it and you’ll eventually find the entrance to its inner sanctum. It might not be quite as old as the nearby Parthenon but it does hold a unique kind of treasure: the personal photographs of director Yorgos Lanthimos.

Taken over the last few years as he wandered his home country, they offer a glimpse of Greece through the auteur’s absurdist eye. We see a coffin resting against a wall next to a mop, and a couple of horses with their heads chopped off by foregrounded trees. A roadside memorial is shown underneath a sign warning of danger ahead – the wiggly road symbol points directly upwards, as if suggesting the route to the next life for the poor victim. This last image is poignant, strange and funny, eliciting the same awkward clash of emotions you get from watching Lanthimos’s films.

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

The Plastic Detox review – a film so terrifying you will want to change your life immediately

In this affecting documentary, an epidemiologist asks six couples struggling to conceive to reduce their exposure to plastics and see if it helps. The results are startling – and prove that we should all make changes now

Get up, after a restless sleep. Shower, using products that contain plastic and are in plastic containers. Fix your hair and deodorise your body using sprays smoothed by plastics, before putting on clothes woven from synthetic (plastic) fibres, picking up your plastic phone and heading out, sipping water from a plastic bottle. Chew plastic gum. Buy a snack wrapped in plastic and receive a receipt printed on plastic-covered paper. Come home, take food out of its plastic packaging, cook it with plastic utensils, then store the leftovers in plastic tubs and clean up with detergents that contain plastics and come in plastic bottles. Clean your teeth with a plastic toothbrush and plastic-infused toothpaste. Go to bed.

The list of ways in which humanity is committing species suicide may be long and growing, but The Plastic Detox is here to suggest that room should be found for the overwhelmingly widespread use of petrochemical-derived plastics. It focuses on one way we are affected by microplastics (the tiny particles that enter our bodies, having broken loose from the surface of plastic), which is called endocrine disruption: these minuscule invaders mess with the body’s hormones and contribute to all kinds of health problems, among them infertility. That’s the main concern of this documentary’s protagonist, epidemiologist Shanna Swan, whose 2021 book Count Down claimed that chemicals in plastic are a factor in falling sperm counts. (The programme doesn’t go into the debate about the difficulties of measuring exactly how vulnerable we are to microplastics: some studies have produced unlikely numbers.)

Published: March 16, 2026, 8:00 am

Many US adults are skipping parenting or having fewer kids – and it’s forcing schools to close

As the US birthrate has declined dramatically, schools are becoming emptier and districts are getting less public funding

At a February board meeting for Memphis-Shelby county schools in Tennessee, a parent of five children who currently or formerly attended Ida B Wells Academy, an alternative education school, asked board members a question.

“This is a high-performing school. This is not a school in crisis,” she said. “So I respectfully ask, why are we considering closing a school that is working?”

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:00 pm

One no-show after another: Sean Penn joins an exclusive band of Oscar-winning refuseniks

The One Battle After Another star’s failure to collect his best supporting actor award – because he was visiting Ukraine – only serves to burnish his reputation

Last night’s Oscars might have been superficially modern (K-pop! Female cinematographers winning things! Jokes about YouTube interstitial advertising!), but there was one slightly charming old throwback: Sean Penn wasn’t there to collect his best supporting actor award.

Sure, this sort of thing happens all the time in other awards shows – you can barely get through a single Baftas without an A-lister revealing that they didn’t fancy braving the London winter – but not the Oscars. The Oscars are meant to represent the pinnacle of professional achievement. It’s your one chance to look all of your peers in the eye as one in the knowledge that you are better than the lot of them. Who’d turn down an opportunity that irresistible?

Published: March 16, 2026, 4:05 pm

I couldn’t stop worrying – until I learned about the 6.30pm rule

My therapist told me that anxiety is a bully and, like all bullies, it needs to be put in its place. To my relief, she knew exactly how to do it

The second half of 2011 was not a good time for me. Work was very stressful, and what had been gearing up to be the Great Summer Romance had slowly and painfully fizzled out. My mother was unwell, and I was going through a phase of really missing my father, who had died a few years before. It was the perfect, uninvited storm.

Before, when I’d gone through bad patches, I’d been able to dig myself out fairly quickly. Not this time. Suddenly, I was living in a state of high anxiety. I was still getting on with my life – going to work, going out – but anxiety was running the show. Having to make even the smallest decision would send me into a panic.

Published: March 16, 2026, 11:00 am

The pet I’ll never forget: Penny, the pigeon who never left my side

Why would anyone kick a bird? Penny was delightful company from the moment I rescued her from some bullies in a pub

A few years ago I was sitting in a pub beer garden when a scruffy little pigeon landed on the bench. After a while, the pigeon edged a bit closer to me, and before I knew it she’d hopped on to my lap.

One of the waitresses came over and explained that this pigeon had wandered inside, but sadly some customers kicked her around to get rid of her. She looked quite young. I thought maybe she was a baby. For the next three hours, this pigeon didn’t leave my side. Then I drove home with her on my shoulder.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:14 am

‘I watch it to be close to him’: why Point Break is my feelgood movie

The latest in our ongoing series of writers looking back on their most rewatched comfort films is a tribute to an action classic that also defined an important friendship

For 25 years, I received texts from my best friend, Gary, that consisted of no intro, no signoff, just a quote from Point Break. “You’re a real blue-flame special, aren’t you, son?” was one. “The air got dirty and the sex got clean” was another. Once, as I opened a takeaway pizza, I received, with perfect timing: “I’m so hungry I could eat the ass-end out of a dead rhino.” Sometimes I would reply immediately or sometimes let a week slip by before firing off: “Lawyers don’t surf” or “Death on a stick out there, mate.”

You might say that Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 action movie helped define who we were, or at least our friendship. Eighteen when it came out, we watched Point Break on spin-cycle at Gary’s house, thrilling to the tale of FBI rookie Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) going undercover as a surfer to flush out the identity of the Ex-Presidents, four guys who don the masks of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and Lyndon B Johnson to hit 27 banks in three years. Utah, a Rose Bowl quarterback before he blew out his knee, and sardonic, burnt-out veteran Pappas (Gary Busey) trace the chemicals in a strand of a suspect’s hair to Latigo Beach, Malibu. “Surfers are territorial, they stick to certain breaks,” Pappas tells Utah, and the bodacious dude from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure – who’s now, like, totally pumped – cosies up to surfer gal Tyler (Lori Petty) to infiltrate this tight-knit subculture.

Published: March 16, 2026, 9:00 am

What was Doge? How Elon Musk tried to gamify government

Steeped in gaming and rightwing culture wars, Musk and his team of teenage coders set out to defeat the enemy of the United States: its people

In 2025, when Elon Musk joined the government as the de facto head of something called the “department of government efficiency”, he declared that governments were poorly configured “big dumb machines”. To the senator Ted Cruz, he explained that “the only way to reconcile the databases and get rid of waste and fraud is to actually look at the computers”.

Muskism came to Washington soaked in memes, adolescent boasts and sadistic victory dances over mass firings. Leading a team of teenage coders and mid-level managers drawn from his suite of companies, Musk aimed to enter the codebase and rewrite regulations and budget lines from within. He would drag the paper-pushing bureaucracy kicking and screaming into the digital 21st century, scanning the contents of cavernous rooms of filing cabinets and feeding the data into a single interoperable system. The undertaking combined features of private equity-led restructuring with startup management, shot through with the sensibility of gaming and rightwing culture war. To succeed, he would need “God mode”, an overview of the whole.

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

Which Oscar-winning movie best reflects our reality? | Fiona Katauskas

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction

• See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here

Published: March 16, 2026, 11:32 pm

Iran’s Hormuz blockade is its most powerful card against Trump and Israel. It won’t back down easily | Jack Watling

By imposing massive costs on the global economy, the Iranian government hopes to cause the US to back down

The US and Israeli decision to attack Iran has sent economic shockwaves around the world. About 20% of global oil supplies have been effectively blocked from transiting the strait of Hormuz since Iran began attacking ships, resulting in a huge jump in oil prices. Militarily, while the United States has the firepower to significantly reduce Iran’s capacity to strike ships in the strait, it is unlikely to be able to eliminate the threat entirely.

Reopening the strait, therefore, is not only a question of military capabilities but of diplomacy, and to negotiate it is necessary to understand what each party to the conflict is trying to achieve.

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:49 pm

Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s plea for European support for his war on Iran – cartoon

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Published: March 16, 2026, 5:45 pm

Europe’s reaction to Trump’s war on Iran is a disaster – for Europe itself | Nathalie Tocci

Prevarication on the war’s legality stands in sharp contrast to the outcry from France and Germany when Bush invaded Iraq

When crisis strikes, we divide, and division breeds inaction. This is the assumption generally made about Europe’s place in the world. But a look at events in the Middle East – past and present – suggests that this is not always the case. Europe is more paralysed than divided over the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran. Yet rather than fostering a shared sense of purpose, this crisis is hollowing out Europe’s identity and undermining its ability to act independently in the world.

Rewind to 2003. The Iraq war was the quintessence of European division. France and Germany vehemently opposed the US-led invasion. Paris sought to block Washington’s unilateral action in the UN security council by rallying a passionate defence of multilateralism and the rule of international law. The UK, Italy and Spain, by contrast, backed the US attack, participating to varying degrees. Europe was divided at its core – and beyond. That year, the EU stood on the brink of enlarging to admit central and eastern Europe. Most of those former communist bloc countries supported the US, less out of conviction about Washington’s case for war than because they saw the US as their path to freedom and future security. The then-US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, infamously divided the continent, taunting “old” Europe with the support Washington was receiving from “new” Europe. The Iraq war created a three-layered fault line: within core Europe, between “old” and “new” Europe, and across the Atlantic.

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:00 am

War in Iran, chaos in the Gulf, repression in the west: and the thread that binds them all is Palestine | Nesrine Malik

In the Middle East, the occupation is the original sin. And those who banked on this US-backed ‘stability’ now find it giving way beneath them

A war spiralling in the Middle East. A death toll now in the thousands across Iran and Lebanon. Energy prices soaring. The Gulf seized up with Iranian strikes. It’s one of those eras that feels bewildering, incomprehensible, out of control. But there is, at the heart of it, a simple logic: everything that is unfolding is a result of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians.

As the conflagration spreads, the connection to Palestine becomes obscured. But it is clear how much of the stability of the Middle East was secured at the expense of the Palestinians. Look at the region before 7 October 2023. US policy on the Middle East focused on “integration’’: containment of Iran, signing up more Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel and the creation, therefore, of a bloc of economic and security interests under the US military umbrella.

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:00 am

The Guardian view on Trump’s war with Iran: if the US is winning, why ask Nato for help? | Editorial

The US has overwhelming military power. Yet the battle has moved to oil routes, alliances and domestic politics – where Tehran is testing western unity

Donald Trump would like you to know that he is winning the war with Iran. So comprehensively, in fact, that he now needs Nato’s help. The western alliance, he warns, will have a “very bad” future if its members refuse. Germany’s defence minister had a brisk reply: this is not our war. Meanwhile, tankers pile up outside the strait of Hormuz as Britain promises, in an understated way, to keep “looking” at its options. Mr Trump has found out that starting a war without a coalition of the willing is easier than finishing one with it.

Along with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, the US president started with an illegal attack on Iran in which the country’s supreme leader was assassinated. American forces have established overwhelming military superiority. By hitting military targets but sparing key oil facilities on Kharg Island, Mr Trump is sending a blunt signal: the US can wreck Iran’s economy. It just hasn’t decided to – yet.

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Published: March 16, 2026, 6:41 pm

How USMNT players designed the boldest kits in generations for World Cup 2026

The US men’s national team hated their 2022 World Cup look. Four years later, they were given control over what they will be wearing this year on home soil

US midfielder Diego Luna rocked back and forth, a wide smile plastered across his face. With even wider eyes, Juventus attacker Weston McKennie looked on like a child on Christmas Day, broke out into applause and shrieked with glee. Timothy Weah rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

The US men’s national team had gathered for a team meeting in a hotel conference room in Austin, Texas, with a friendly against Ecuador days away. The get-together had nothing to do with tactics. Rather, they were about to see the kits they’d be wearing at the 2026 World Cup, the first tournament in three decades to be played on home soil.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:00 pm

Chiefs reportedly trade for Jets quarterback Fields with Mahomes’s return date uncertain

• Jets to receive sixth-round draft pick as part of deal

• Patrick Mahomes recovering from torn knee ligaments

The New York Jets have reportedly agreed to a trade that will send quarterback Justin Fields to the Kansas City Chiefs as a backup for the injured Patrick Mahomes.

The Jets will receive a sixth-round draft pick in 2027 for Fields and pick up $7m of his guaranteed $10m salary for this upcoming season. The deal, first reported by ESPN, is pending a physical.

The 27-year-old signed a two-year, $40m deal – with $30m guaranteed – with New York last March and was the starter for most of the season until he was benched in favor of Tyrod Taylor in Week 12. He didn’t play another game for the Jets, ending the season on injured reserve with a knee injury.

Fields went 2-7 as the Jets’ starter with seven touchdowns and only one interception for 1,259 yards. He threw for fewer than 55 yards in four games, including a season-low 27 in a loss to Buffalo in Week 2.

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:33 pm

Tour veterans offer timely challenge to big two era of Sinner and Alcaraz | Tumaini Carayol

Meanwhile, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina served up a classic in latest chapter of their exciting rivalry

In the uncertain early stages of his Indian Wells semi-final contest with Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev swiftly made his intentions clear. Having established a 3-1 lead, he chased down a trademark Alcaraz drop shot, then a lob, before slamming the door shut on the point by firing an ultra-flat inside-out backhand winner on to the edge of the line.

This was a statement point and it formed part of the most startling performance of the year so far. Few gave Medvedev a serious chance against Alcaraz, who had won their four previous meetings, conceding just one set. It took one of the best matches of Medvedev’s distinguished career to turn the tables on Alcaraz in only two sets.

Published: March 16, 2026, 9:04 pm

Toto Wolff says Verstappen’s car is cause of driver’s misery, not new regulations

• Mercedes chief points to number of overtakes in China

• ‘All the indicators say that people love it’

Toto Wolff has dismissed criticism of the new Formula One regulations from Max Verstappen as a result of the “horror show” Red Bull car the four-time world champion is having to drive.

Verstappen has not been alone in his outspoken criticism of the new rules, and after he was forced to retire from the Chinese GP on Sunday he delivered his most damning condemnation yet of the emphasis on electrical energy deployment and recovery.

Published: March 16, 2026, 11:48 am

‘The Premier League is surprisingly lenient’: did Chelsea get off lightly?

Experts believe club would be lucky to escape with fine and suspended transfer ban but further penalties may follow

The Premier League’s judgment against Chelsea for breaking football’s rules – during an eight-year trophy spree under Roman Abramovich – concludes that the club engaged in “deception and concealment”.

The breaches, more than 30 of them, relate to at least £47m in off-book payments linked to landmark deals for star players, including Eden Hazard, Willian, David Luiz and Nemanja Matic.

Published: March 16, 2026, 8:31 pm

MLS suspends Philadelphia Union executive Ernst Tanner after misconduct investigation

• Sporting director suspended without pay through 1 June

• League found ‘violations of MLS policies and standards’

Major League Soccer announced on Monday that it has suspended Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner without pay through 1 June 2026. Tanner had been under league investigation since mid-November following a Guardian report detailing wide-ranging allegations of misconduct during his tenure at the Union.

“Based on new information obtained during outside counsel’s independent review, the investigation substantiated violations of MLS policies and standards of professional conduct required of League and Club leadership,” the league said in a statement to the Guardian.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:03 pm

Blown call ends World Baseball Classic semi-final as USA squeeze past Dominican Republic

• As it happened: USA 2-1 Dominican Republic

• Americans will play Italy or Venezuela in final

Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony homered and the United States limited the Dominican Republic’s electric offense to win a thrilling semi-final 2-1 on Sunday and move one win from capturing its second World Baseball Classic championship.

The Dominican Republic threatened in the ninth when Julio Rodríguez drew a walk and advanced to third against Mason Miller. With two outs, Miller struck out Geraldo Perdomo for his second save but the final pitch – on a full count and with the dangerous Fernando Tatis Jr up next – was several inches below the strike zone. The Automated Ball-Strike Challenge system is not a part of the World Baseball Classic, so the Dominicans – who benefited from some missed calls themselves – were unable to challenge. Although the Americans’ excellent pitching won the game rather than the umpiring, it was a dismal way to end what had been an enthralling contest.

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:32 am

Football has not been ‘unfair’ to Manchester City. They just lack consistency

Pep Guardiola’s team have ground down other title contenders in the past with their relentless winning streaks. But those days appear to have gone

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

This has been a strange season for Manchester City. Every now and then, they’ve threatened to produce the sort of run that used to define them. They won eight games in a row from the end of November to the end of December, then six in a row in February. At which point the tendency has been for a sort of mental muscle memory to kick in and to think that, even if they haven’t been playing that well, even if this doesn’t look like the City sides of old, this is the start of one of those relentless bouts of form that has ground down challengers in the past. After all, some of those past runs began uncertainly.

But this is a very different City. Even Pep Guardiola sounded bemused after Saturday’s draw with West Ham, noting how “in the past always we found the way to win this kind of game … this season, the fact that we didn’t score goals for the amount of chances, it’s punished us”. He seemingly had no explanation for that, muttering about the “unfairness” of the world that his side had not got the results he feels their football has deserved.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:35 pm

Leqaa Kordia, a pro-Palestinian activist, released after a year in ICE custody

Kordia was taken at a check-in at an ICE office in New Jersey and was held despite court ruling thrice for her release

A New Jersey woman who had been arrested at a pro-Palestine protest and booked into a US immigration detention center in Texas last March has been released on bond, after a year in custody.

Leqaa Kordia, 33, originally from the West Bank, was arrested in April 2024 at a protest against Israel’s war on Gaza outside of Columbia University. Nearly a year later, she was taken into custody after reporting for a check-in at a Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New Jersey.

Published: March 17, 2026, 12:05 am

Cheese from largest US raw milk distributor linked to E coli outbreak

Cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm identified as ‘likely source’ of infections across multiple states

Cheese from the country’s largest raw milk distributor have been linked to a multistate E coli outbreak.

Raw cheddar cheese from the California-based company Raw Farm has been identified as the “likely source” of several E coli O157:H7 infections in California, Florida and Texas, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), PBS News reported, though no Raw Farm products have tested positive for E coli.

Published: March 17, 2026, 12:41 am

‘Attention will swing back’: Epstein outrage unlikely to subside despite Trump’s Iran war

Advocates say 24/7 coverage of US attacks will not last for ever – and spotlight will return to Epstein and his crimes

As the US woke to news that Donald Trump had bombed Iran, domestic discord was fast simmering.

There was unrelenting outrage over ICE raids. There was frustration with the rising cost of living. There was fear over rocketing healthcare prices, mounting household debt, not to mention many Americans’ nagging sense of desperation in a country, some warned, where democracy itself was under threat.

Published: March 16, 2026, 11:00 am

US judge dismisses $100,000 suit over spiciness of New York taqueria’s sauce

A German tourist filed a lawsuit claiming he felt unpleasant symptoms after eating tacos with salsa at Los Tacos No 1

A German tourist’s attempt to pursue $100,000 in damages from a New York City taqueria whose salsa he found to be too spicy has failed after a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit.

In a complaint filed in October 2024, German national Faycal Manz said he was visiting New York City two months earlier when he stopped at the Times Square location of Los Tacos No 1.

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:16 pm

Teenage girls sue Musk’s xAI, accusing Grok tool of creating child sexual abuse material

Lawuit details how sexualised AI-generated images were produced and distributed without girls’ knowledge

A group of three teenage girls, two of whom are minors, filed a lawsuit on Monday against Elon Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence company alleging that its Grok image generator used photos of them to produce and distribute child sexual abuse material. The class-action lawsuit is the first filed by minors following Grok’s rampant generation of nonconsensual nude images earlier this year.

“xAI chose to profit off the sexual predation of real people, including children, despite knowing full well the consequences of creating such a dangerous product,” Vanessa Baehr-Jones, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

Published: March 16, 2026, 8:54 pm

Cannabis is not an effective treatment for common mental health conditions, says review

International researchers find ‘very little evidence’ medical form of the drug can treat anxiety, anorexia and other disorders

Cannabis is not an effective treatment for common mental health conditions despite the global surge in patients using it for that purpose, a review has found.

Researchers concluded there was “very little evidence for its efficacy” in treating anxiety, anorexia nervosa, psychotic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder or opioid use disorder.

Published: March 16, 2026, 11:30 pm

The Taylor Swift effect: US vinyl sales top $1bn for the first time since 1983

Swift leads with 1.6m vinyl sales of The Life of a Showgirl in 2025 while Sabrina Carpenter and Kendrick Lamar round out the LP charts

For the first time in over four decades, US vinyl sales have topped $1bn in annual revenue.

Vinyl purchases reached $1.04bn in 2025, per a new report by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) published on 16 March. It marks the 19th consecutive year of growth for the format that was once considered a niche interest.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:11 pm

‘A molten, mushy state’: scientists may have found a new type of liquid planet

Latest observations of L98-59d, about 35 light years from Earth, suggest it could be different to anything seen before

Astronomers have identified a planet composed of molten lava, suggesting the existence of an entirely new category of liquid planet.

The distant world, known as L98-59d, is about 1.6 times the size of Earth and orbits a small red star 35 light years away. Astronomers initially thought the planet might harbour a deep ocean of liquid water, but the latest analysis suggests that it could be fundamentally different to anything seen before.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:00 am

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

Exclusive: Fixing a leak can be simple and equivalent to closing a coal power station, making lack of action maddening, say analysts

The world’s worst mega-leaks of the potent greenhouse gas methane in 2025 have been revealed by an analysis of satellite data.

The super-polluting plumes from oil and gas facilities have a colossal heating impact on the climate but often result from poor maintenance and can be simple to fix. The assessment found dozens of mega-leaks, each having the same global heating impact as a coal-fired power station.

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

Reduced physical activity due to global heating will lead to rise in health issues, study says

Researchers project that reduced activity could contribute to half a million additional premature deaths annually by 2050

Rising temperatures are making physical activity undesirable and even dangerous in many parts of the world, and as global heating worsens, it will further affect how much people are able to move.

Researchers analysed data from 156 countries between 2000 and 2022 and modelled how rising temperatures may affect physical activity globally by 2050.

Published: March 16, 2026, 11:30 pm

Oldest-known whale song recording provides new insight into ocean sounds

Recording of humpback whale from 1949 could also provide new understanding of how the huge animals communicate

A haunting whale song discovered on decades-old audio equipment could open up a new understanding of how the huge animals communicate, according to researchers who say it is the oldest such recording known.

The song is that of a humpback whale, a marine giant beloved by whale watchers for its docile nature and spectacular leaps from the water, and was recorded by scientists in March 1949 in Bermuda, said researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Published: March 16, 2026, 1:05 pm

‘We cannot replace USAID, but we can do big things’: conservation plots a future without American money

The Trump administration’s cuts to biodiversity funding have imperiled species, habitats and the people who defend both. Now the world is seeking a new way forward

On 22 January 2024, at the inauguration of the current Liberian president, Joseph Boakai, the US-based Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh Wesley paid tribute to the west African nation’s tropical forests – one of the places where, she said, “our fathers came / centuries ago, and planted our umbilical cords / deep in the soil”.

The forests of Liberia are among the most diverse on the planet, home not only to humans and their ancestral ties but also to rare species such as forest elephants, pygmy hippopotamuses and western chimpanzees. They are also chronically threatened by industrial development, including illegal logging and mining.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:00 pm

Colorado funeral home owner given 18-year sentence in decaying bodies case

Carie Hallford, 48, whose ex-husband Jon received 40-year term, pleaded guilty to defrauding grieving families

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A former Colorado funeral home owner who helped her ex-husband hide nearly 200 decomposing bodies in a building was sentenced Monday to 18 years on a federal fraud charge, nearly the maximum allowed under the law.

Carie Hallford, 48, faced up to 20 years in prison for taking over $130,000 from families for funeral services, including cremations, and often giving them urns full of concrete mix instead. In two cases, investigators found the wrong body was buried. In August, she pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and admitted that she and her ex-husband Jon Hallford cheated customers and also defrauded the federal government out of nearly $900,000 in pandemic small business aid.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:21 pm

Trump backs FCC chair’s threat to pull licenses of news outlets over Iran war coverage

US president on social media ‘thrilled’ that Brendan Carr reportedly looking into broadcasters’ licenses

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Donald Trump reinforced comments made by Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), threatening the broadcast licenses of news organizations that report unfavorably on the war in Iran.

In a Truth Social post on Sunday night, Trump said he was “thrilled” that Carr was “looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations. They get Billions of Dollars of FREE American Airwaves, and use it to perpetuate LIES …”

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:57 pm

Afghan asylum seeker dies in ICE custody, US advocacy group says

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, died on Saturday in Texas less than 24 hours after being detained

An Afghan immigrant who previously worked with the United States military in Afghanistan and later sought asylum in the US died over the weekend in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody less than 24 hours after being detained in Texas, an advocacy group said on Sunday.

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, who was living in a Dallas suburb with his wife and six children while his asylum case remained pending, was arrested by federal agents outside his apartment on Friday morning while taking his children to school, said a statement from Shawn VanDiver, president of the military veteran-led group AfghanEvac.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:34 pm

Relative of US airman killed in Middle East crash calls war on Iran ‘uncalled for’

Cousin of Tech Sgt Tyler Simmons, whose military refueling plane crashed in Iraq, says: ‘We didn’t need to be in this war’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

A relative of an Ohio airman who was killed recently in a military airplane crash in Iraq amid the US and Israel’s war in nearby Iran has said the conflict is “uncalled for”.

“This could have been prevented,” Stephan Douglas said of the death of his cousin Tech Sgt Tyler Simmons, 28, in an interview with the Ohio news outlet WCMH. “We didn’t need to be in this war. This is uncalled for – and this is what we get.”

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:34 pm

Ukraine war briefing: Russia agrees to stop recruiting Kenyans in fight against Kyiv

No more Kenyans to be enlisted by Moscow; Starmer warns against fossil fuel ‘windfall for Putin’ during war on Iran. What we know on day 1,483

Russia has agreed to stop recruiting Kenyan citizens to fight with its army in Ukraine, Kenya’s foreign minister said on Monday after talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow. More than 1,780 citizens from 36 African countries are believed to be fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s estimates in February. Kenya’s intelligence services estimate more than 1,000 Kenyans have been sent to fight, according to a report seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP). “We have now agreed that Kenyans shall not be enlisted,” the Kenyan foreign minister, Musalia Mudavadi, told reporters, sitting alongside the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

Since ordering troops into Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been widely accused of recruiting people from other nationalities to fight alongside its army. Lavrov said Kenyan citizens had voluntarily signed contracts to fight alongside the Russian army. Kenyan long-distance runner Evans Kibet – captured by Ukraine and held as a prisoner of war – told AFP in an interview from the facility where he was detained that he had been tricked into signing an army contract after going to Russia for a sporting event.

Keir Starmer, who will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks on Tuesday, has warned the US-Israeli war on Iran cannot be allowed to become a “windfall for Putin”. Russia has received €6bn (£5bn) from selling its fossil fuels in the fortnight since the start of the war, data suggests. Zelenskyy’s visit will come on the day of the government deadline for the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich to pay proceeds from his sale of Chelsea FC to victims of the Ukraine war, writes Jessica Elgot. Zelenskyy will visit Madrid on Wednesday for talks with Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez.

Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, has been criticised for calling for the normalisation of relations with Russia to re-establish cheap energy supplies, Jennifer Rankin reports. De Wever said Europe had to rearm “and at the same time we must normalise relations with Russia and regain access to cheap energy. It is common sense. In private European leaders tell me I am right, but no one dares say it out loud.”

Russia has taken control of 12 settlements in Ukraine in the first two weeks of March as part of advances along the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine, according to Russian state-run news agencies, quoting top general Valery Gerasimov. Gerasimov said Russian forces were “actively moving towards Sloviansk,” a heavily defended town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region long seen as one of Moscow’s major targets.

Russian air defence units downed at least 67 Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow on Monday, according to data published by the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin. Sobyanin also said on Telegram that air defence units had shot down about 250 Ukrainian drones approaching Moscow over the previous two days.

Drone debris crashed on to the historic Maidan square in central Kyiv early on Monday during a rare daytime Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital, AFP journalists reported. The Ukrainian air force described the rush hour barrage as an “unusual” attack of “various types of strike drones”. It added that its air defence units had downed 194 Russian drones out of 211 launched overnight and into Monday. Three people were killed in the attacks overnight, officials said – one in the Zaporizhzhia region and two more in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

A damaged Russian gas tanker that has been drifting in the Mediterranean without a crew for almost two weeks has 700 tonnes of fuel on board, Russia’s foreign ministry said Monday. A series of explosions rocked the Arctic Metagaz on 3 March, causing serious damage to the vessel and forcing its crew to evacuate. Russia said the ship, sanctioned by the US and the EU for being part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet”, was attacked by Ukrainian sea drones. Ukraine has not commented.

Published: March 17, 2026, 12:48 am

Sri Lanka brings in four-day week to eke out stocks of oil and gas hit by Iran war

Effective closure of strait of Hormuz also affecting Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, which have brought in crisis measures

Sri Lanka is introducing a shorter four-day working week to preserve its shrinking fuel and gas reserves, as the Middle East conflict continues to severely disrupt energy supplies in the region.

Countries across south Asia are facing crippling shortages of fuel and LPG gas, which are used for everything from home cooking to cremating bodies, as most supplies have been held up in the Gulf since the US and Israel began bombing Iran.

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:52 pm

BBC asks US court to throw out Trump’s $10bn lawsuit and avoid ‘chilling effect’

Corporation’s lawyers argue expensive but ‘groundless’ litigation restricts ability to cover public figures

The BBC has asked a US court to throw out Donald Trump’s $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit over the way a documentary edited one of his speeches, warning that proceeding with the case would have a “chilling effect” on its reporting on the president.

In papers filed to the Florida court dealing with the case, the BBC’s US lawyers claimed Trump’s reputation had not been damaged by the documentary, given it aired in the UK a week before his re-election.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:22 pm

French political parties seek alliances before final round of local elections

Candidates look for deals with rivals to boost chances as major seats including Paris, Marseille and Lyon appear tight

Political parties in France are hastily attempting to negotiate strategic alliances before the final round of local elections this weekend, after a strong showing by the far right and the radical left.

This Sunday’s final-round vote for mayors and local councillors in major cities including Marseille, Lyon and Paris is expected to be close.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:58 pm

And the winner is ... all of us? How the Oscars have changed for the better

The diversified Academy and a mutating industry have changed what many had come to expect from the stuffy, rule-following Oscars

Last year, as the major fall film festivals took place around the world, it was hard to make out the sound of audience applause. It wasn’t an attendance issue or that booing was heard instead (that’s solely a Cannes response), it was that, for many, hands were too busy wringing to find time to clap.

The trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto was once seen as an inescapable fixture on a film’s road to the Oscars. Best picture winners such as 12 Years a Slave, Spotlight, Birdman, Moonlight, The Shape of Water and Green Book all rose within that circuit and cemented their reception at festivals and world premieres and often felt judged for awards potential over quality. But over the past few years, as the Academy has changed and diversified its voting body and as the industry has changed in so many other ways, something has shifted. Winning films have come from Cannes, Sundance, SXSW and, most shockingly, no festival at all …

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:35 pm

Sinners’ Oscar triumphs show that Black cinema is now a vital and valid part of Hollywood

Its wins are a testament to Ryan Coogler’s vision. His highly personal film foregrounds the Black experience and its essential humanity is a lesson for us all
• Oscar winners 2026: the full list
• Key takeaways: horror wins, tech loses and politics is hard to ignore

Congratulations to the Sinners camp on its Oscar night triumphs – affirmation that cinema can be deep and entertaining at the same time. It might not have swept the major awards as some of us had hoped, but it is still a personal victory for Ryan Coogler, and also the validation that Black cinema has long been denied. And despite handling heavy themes of racist violence, Sinners will probably be remembered by history as a message of hope and unity in a turbulent era.

Nobody could argue that Coogler’s film didn’t deserve its success. Sinners is a complete, unified, all-round work of art. Everything seems to be in tune: the story, the performances (not least Michael B Jordan’s technically demanding dual role – justly rewarded with the best actor Oscar), the music, the costumes , the production design, the visuals (a boundary-smashing award for Autumn Durald Arkapaw – the first woman and the first Black winner of the best cinematography Oscar). Sinners’ record 16 nominations and four wins were confirmation that the Academy agreed.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:24 am

Paul Thomas Anderson endured one snub after another. Now the Oscars have finally seen sense | Xan Brooks

In honouring One Battle After Another, Academy voters finally welcomed Hollywood’s prodigal son into the fold

Oscar night climaxed with a metaphorical whiff of gunpowder and a defiant rebel yell as One Battle After Another broke late to claim the crowning best picture and director awards at the Dolby theatre in downtown Los Angeles. If it is true that Americans get the presidents they deserve, it follows that they should get the appropriate Academy Award winner as well.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s rambunctious counter-culture thriller is the perfect film for an imperfect USA, brilliantly reading the tea-leaves of Donald Trump’s second term with its tale of leftist activists in a proto-fascist California. One Battle After Another was the most overtly political of this year’s best picture nominees and that might have made the difference. But it was arguably the most ambitious, rousing and lip-smackingly satisfying too.

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:32 am

‘Orwell went off to fight. I thought I’d have to do the same’: Raoul Peck on his intimate connection with the writer

The Haitian director was given unprecedented access to George Orwell’s archives – and found a fellow crusader for truth. His extraordinary new film highlights the sinister links between Big Brother, Trump and Putin

‘I must admit,” says Raoul Peck from his book-lined Parisian apartment, “George Orwell was not top of my list of authors who I thought would fit my current view of the world.” That view – anti-imperialist, intellectually curious and fiercely independent – has been shaped by an extraordinary life. Born in Haiti, Peck grew up under the notoriously violent Duvalier regimes, before his family fled in 1961. He was variously educated in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, then New York and Orléans in France before moving to Berlin, where he studied industrial engineering and economics. He spent a year as a New York taxi driver and five as a journalist and photographer, before getting his film degree in Berlin in 1988. In 2010, he was made chair of the French state film school.

He is best known for his dramas and documentaries, which often zoom in on his intellectual heroes. He has profiled Patrice Lumumba, the DRC’s first leader; shot a drama about the friendship of the young Engels and Marx, the crucible that created communism; created a tender portrait of South African photographer Ernest Cole; and won a Bafta for his 2017 documentary about the writer James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro. In 2021, he made Exterminate All the Brutes, a four-part TV series about colonisation and ethnic cleansing. His 2005 film Sometimes in April dramatised and explored the Rwandan genocide. No one – with the possible exception of Adam Curtis – has consistently interrogated big ideas and the structures that shape our world in a more inventive and probing way.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:00 am

‘We kicked Bono’s arse’: how we made Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again (with a little help from Kraftwerk)

‘Kerry’s spoken verse needed 39 takes spread over several months because she’d had her tonsils out’

People never believe me that Kraftwerk created Atomic Kitten. In 1996, my band OMD released Walking on the Milky Way, which I thought was one of the best songs I’d ever written. But in the age of Britpop, we were perceived as an 80s synthpop band, past our sell-by date. Radio 2 wouldn’t play the song and Woolworths wouldn’t stock it. I thought: “I’m functioning with one arm tied behind my back.” So my friend Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk said: “Why don’t you create a girl band as a vehicle for your songs?”

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:19 pm

‘We did Disneyland on mind-altering substances’: Primus frontman Les Claypool on being rock’s great joker – and why Metallica rejected him

After going platinum in the 90s and writing the South Park theme, bassist extraordinaire Claypool discusses the AI-themed concept album he’s made with Sean Ono Lennon

When Les Claypool wrote his first song for Primus in 1984, he faced a crisis of self-confidence. “I was too embarrassed to sing in my apartment,” he says on a video call. “But my roommate at the time was dating the preacher’s daughter, and had keys to the church across the street.” In the dead of night, the madcap bassist and singer took his recording equipment to the empty church, set up on the podium, and first sang his anti-war song Too Many Puppies, which recast soldiers as little dogs: “Too many puppies are being shot in the dark!”

It was the first oddball creation of many: Primus’s rubbery fusions of prog, metal and funk have made Claypool one of rock’s most unlikely success stories. Albums such as 1991’s Sailing the Seas of Cheese are cartoon lands filled with colourful misfits, largely drawn from Claypool’s upbringing in blue-collar California, and given voices inspired by Mel Blanc’s work for Looney Tunes. Today, Claypool has two platinum records, a legacy of influencing giants such as Deftones, and a global cult fanbase including Rush and Tom Waits. But his wackiness, along with his having written the South Park theme and popularised the fan catchphrase “Primus sucks”, has made it hard to peel off the label of class-clown. “There’s an iron hand in that velvet glove,” he promises.

Published: March 16, 2026, 1:57 pm

Better than Wuthering Heights? The Brontës’ novels – ranked!

As Emerald Fennell’s film sparks debate, we celebrate the pioneering brilliance of the siblings’ work

This was the first novel that Charlotte Brontë completed. It was rejected by publishers nine times. Written in the voice of a male narrator, William Crimsworth, it offers a downbeat story of everyday middle-class striving as the protagonist travels to Brussels to establish his career as a teacher. But the last publisher to see it thought it showed promise, despite being too short and insufficiently “striking and exciting”. Had the author anything else to offer? Luckily, Jane Eyre – which amply supplied the earlier book’s deficiencies – was already in train and was soon accepted with alacrity. Although The Professor remained unpublished in Charlotte’s lifetime, she continued to believe that it was “as good as I can write”; its subtly ironised male voice reveals her underlying literary sophistication.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:00 pm

Howl by Howard Jacobson review – a tragicomic portrait of a Jewish man’s despair

A suburban headteacher navigates antisemitism in Gaza-outraged London in Jacobson’s latest novel

Howard Jacobson writes characters at their wits’ end; those characters are usually men, and those men are usually Jewish. Additionally, and problematically for both them and everyone around them, their collective wits are capacious: easily enlarged to allow idiosyncrasy to bloom into neurosis, preoccupation into obsession. And Jacobson’s men do the opposite of suffering in silence (although they do that too); they are much given to exhaustive and exhausting disputation, to arguing their point long after their interlocutors are longing for bed, and not in the fun way all parties might hope.

With its straightforward allusion to another Jewish writer’s witness to anguish, Howl appears to make its intentions apparent from the outset: we are located in the world of mental dissolution, of consciousness strained and subsequently fractured. But rather than Allen Ginsberg’s would-be seekers of enlightenment, disappearing into the volcanoes of Mexico and “scattering their semen freely” through rose gardens and cemeteries,Jacobson’s avatar is a somewhat prim, suburban primary school headteacher, driven to distraction not by free love and copious hallucinogens, but by fizzing anger and agonising guilt.

Published: March 16, 2026, 9:00 am

The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Mallaby review – the story of the man who changed the world

A journalist charts the progress of AI pioneer Demis Hassabis from child chess prodigy to Nobel prize winner

It was March 2016, and at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, the world was gathered to watch the culmination of a battle 2,500 years in the making. On one side was the South Korean Lee Se-dol, the second-highest ranking Go player in the world. On the other was AlphaGo – a computer program developed by London-based artificial intelligence research company DeepMind.

“Chess is the greatest game mankind has invented,” game designer Alex Randolph once said. “Go is the greatest game mankind has discovered.” Something about the ancient Chinese duel, where players place stones on a grid, trying to capture territory, feels fundamental – inevitable, even. Chess had fallen to the robots nearly 20 years earlier, when DeepBlue beat Kasparov, but Go, with its vast decision space (there are far more legal board positions than atoms in the observable universe) remained a plucky holdout.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:00 am

A petri dish of human brain cells is currently playing Doom. Should we be worried?

Scientists in the US have uploaded a fruit fly to a computer simulation, while an Australian lab has taught neurons on a glass chip to play a 90s video game. How long before we are all living in a sci-fi movie?

It sounds like the opening of a sci-fi film, but US scientists recently uploaded a copy of the brain of a living fly into a simulation. In San Francisco, biotechnology company Eon Systems created a virtual insect that knew how to walk, fly, groom and feed in its virtual environment. Researchers in Australia, meanwhile, have taught a petri dish containing 200,000 human brain cells to play the iconic 90s shooter Doom. One experiment has pushed a brain into a computer; the other has plugged a computer into brain cells.

Both stories have been hailed as scientific breakthroughs, but have also sparked inevitable fears about the prospects of lab-grown humans and digital clones. Should we be concerned?

Published: March 16, 2026, 1:30 pm

Omission impossible: why the Oscars can never get their In Memoriam tribute right

Why did Brigitte Bardot, Farrah Fawcett and James Van Der Beek not warrant a mention when Michael Jackson did? The history of the Oscars tribute snubs says a lot about why some stars are gone but not forgotten

The Oscars in memoriam segment is a firmly lodged Academy tradition – albeit one that is not as longstanding as you might think, having only been introduced in 1994. Almost as established a tradition is that of the outcry following a major film industry figure being omitted from the segment. This year seemed particularly notable in that regard, with Brigitte Bardot, TV stars James Van Der Beek and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and the celebrated Bollywood actor Dharmendra among those left out, to varying levels of outrage on social media.

Critics of these omissions will usually imply they are down to forgetfulness or neglect on the part of the Academy. Such claims, though, overlook the fact that the in memoriam process is a painstaking one, adjudicated on by a committee tasked with whittling a longlist of hundreds down to a final list of around 30. As Bruce Davis, former executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences told the LA Times in 2010, the process “gets close to agonising by the end. You are dropping people who the public know. It’s just not comfortable.”

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:19 pm

Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed first three guest hosts of UK Saturday Night Live

British version of the topical US comedy show will air live on Sky One and will be written in the week before broadcast

Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed have been named as the first three guest hosts of the UK spin-off of Saturday Night Live.

The first episode of the long-awaited British version of the US late-night comedy show will air live on Sky on 21 March.

Published: March 16, 2026, 8:18 pm

John Oliver on JD Vance: ‘He’s become the archetype of the hyper-online conservative troll’

The late-night host dug deep into JD Vance’s political shift into a rightwing troll second in line to the US presidency

On the latest Last Week Tonight, John Oliver took a deep dive on JD Vance, the former Hillbilly Elegy memoirist turned US senator from Ohio and Donald Trump’s second-term vice-president. “I know to some, Vance might appear to be just another abrasive Maga asshole with a load-bearing beard,” Oliver duly noted. “But to many on the right, he’s a towering intellect.”

Tucker Carlson once called him “the smartest and deepest [senator] I’ve ever met”, which is “kind of like Ryan Lochte calling Cookie Monster his go-to guy for investment advice”, said Oliver. “I don’t trust any of the individuals involved on any of the subjects involved.”

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:55 pm

‘I watched society burn a woman at the stake’: Melissa Auf der Maur on her bandmate Courtney Love and the farce of the 90s

Wary of working with Hole’s ‘impossible, drug addict’ lead singer, the bassist soon found herself entranced. So why did she jump ship for the Smashing Pumpkins – and start a relationship with Love’s enemy Dave Grohl?

It took Melissa Auf der Maur almost 20 years to tell anyone, even her husband, how her father had died. It was April 1998 and she was the bassist in Hole, the blistering alternative rock band founded by Courtney Love. They were on a brief break from recording what would be the band’s hit – and, for a time, final – album, Celebrity Skin, while Love, clean from heroin addiction, was pursuing a Hollywood film career.

Auf der Maur’s father, Nick Auf der Maur, was a Montreal politician, activist, newspaper columnist and career drinker who, in his youth, had been arrested for performing poetry in the street naked (with a gin and tonic in hand) and getting into a bar brawl with Jack Kerouac, who, he said, was a racist. He was also a heavy smoker. The lump that developed on his neck turned out to be throat cancer, which spread to his brain. When radiation didn’t work, he underwent an experimental procedure that cut out part of his throat and tongue, leaving him unable to eat, drink or talk properly. At home to visit him, Auf der Maur picked up the landline to make a call and heard her father’s voice on the line to a friend. He was saying he wanted to end his life, and he wanted help doing it. She put down the phone and then, later, spoke to the friend. If her father was going to end his life, she wanted to be there.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:00 am

My rookie era: after my panic attacks, woodworking became the one good thing I could count on

Limb-severing machinery and loud noises awaited my frayed nerves – yet the workshop became my safe space

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I had my first panic attack on New Year’s Day 2022. In the months that followed I experienced more of these episodes and increasingly craved serenity. Woodworking emerged in my mind as a place I might get some reprieve from the new psychological maze I was stumbling through after a traumatic event changed how I experienced the world.

The call of the timber was undeniable. I landed on the Victorian Woodworkers Association in North Melbourne for its price, emphasis on craft and the pedigree of its tutors. Here I was able to take an open class that let me make whatever I wanted from day one.

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Published: March 16, 2026, 2:00 pm

Far from ‘upcharged grape juice’, these are the 13 most exciting nonalcoholic wines in the US right now

The top alcohol-free wines – from red to white to sparkling rosé – taste surprisingly similar to traditional offerings

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As an editor and writer who regularly covers the world of nonalcoholic drinks, I have tasted more than my fair share of booze-free wines. Much like with regular wine, the results have been mixed – some are bitter or super sour, or even worse, smell like nothing. But I’ve also had the pleasure of drinking alcohol-free wines that scratched the same itch as a top-notch riesling or champagne.

When I have conversations with people who are curious about nonalcoholic wines, cost comes up as one of the most common concerns. I totally understand that it’s tempting to write off the category as upcharged grape juice with better branding, but contrary to popular opinion, you’re not actually paying for the alcohol in regular wine either.

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:07 pm

Don’t upstage your friends! 19 modern etiquette mistakes – and how to avoid them

In a world teeming with social media and smart devices, there are many ways to upset people, whether you’re checking your watch notifications or sending a voice note without a text to explain the subject. Here’s how to navigate it all

In an age of smartphones, social media and instant communication, it has never been easier to connect … or to offend everyone around us. Many of today’s most common etiquette breaches stem not from malice but from convenience: a badly written message, a thoughtless post, a device that demands our attention. Yet good manners still hinge on the same old principle: consideration for others. From eschewing headphones on public transport to ghosting invitations and sharing thoughtlessly online, here are some of the most common modern etiquette mistakes, why they grate, and how they can be avoided.

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review: its huge screen blocks shoulder surfers from spying on you

Latest Android superphone packs great cameras, fast chips, long battery, a stylus and first-of-its-kind privacy display

Samsung’s latest Ultra superphone promises to keep shoulder surfers out of your business with a first-of-its-kind privacy display built into its huge 6.9in screen.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is Samsung’s top-of-the-line phone costing £1,279 (€1,449/$1,299/A$2,199) and is one of the most feature-packed handsets you can get, with four cameras on the back, an integrated stylus and AI assistance in every corner.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:00 am

Five of Europe’s best accessible island escapes

From the Venetian lagoon to the sparkling Med, these island getaways offer a welcome change of pace just a short hop from the mainland

Connected to the German mainland by a single rail causeway, Sylt is just over three hours from Hamburg by direct train. The largest of the North Frisian islands, it slices through the North Sea and the Wadden Sea, with salt marshes and mudflats to the east and 25 miles of white sands sweeping along the western coast, grassy dunes buffering the bracing winds.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:00 am

‘The system is broken’: grassroots Democratic group aims to revitalize outmoded ground game

Swing Left aims to reconnect with voters and overhaul campaigning with ‘deep canvassing’ ahead of midterms

Pope Leo came top with 42%. Donald Trump was just behind with 41%. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) scored 38% and TV host Stephen Colbert 35%. Trailing behind all of them was the Democratic party, viewed positively by just 30% of voters in a recent NBC News poll. About 52% view the Democrats negatively.

Among the reasons for the distrust, argues Swing Left, a national grassroots organisation, is a broken voter contact model in which Democrats are too transactional, too last minute and too dependent on outdated technology. It is aiming to fix the problem ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Published: March 16, 2026, 4:29 pm

Are fuel price increases making you cut back? We would like to hear from you

Perhaps you are limiting car journeys or reducing the amount of cooking you do. Tell us

The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted global shipping routes and caused a surge in global oil market prices.

The strait of Hormuz, one of the most important waterways in the world, through which about a fifth of international oil supplies usually travel, has been all but closed since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:08 pm

Share your thoughts on the 2026 Oscars from the winners to the snubs

One Battle After Another sweeps the Oscars but there were big wins for Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley – now we’d like to hear from you

One Battle After Another led the way at this year’s Oscars, scooping six awards, including best picture.

Hot on its heels was Sinners, which took home four statuettes, including a best actor win for Michael B Jordan.

Published: March 16, 2026, 11:40 am

Night prayers and a satirical sculpture: photos of the day – Monday

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

Published: March 16, 2026, 1:38 pm