‘It’s my F-you ring’: why divorced women are transforming their wedding jewelry

‘Divorce rings’ have been gaining popularity. But for some women, freedom warrants a stronger, more defiant symbol

I have been a divorce coach for five years. Every client’s process is different, but occasionally I notice new trends. One afternoon, a woman showed up to her session fuming. Her soon to be ex-husband was trying to claw back her engagement ring through his attorney.

“Absolutely not,” she said, her jaw stiffening. “That ring is mine. I earned it. And I already know exactly what I’m doing with it.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 pm

What a viral speech in Ireland reveals about colonial history and Caribbean English

Linguists say reaction to Irish TD’s remarks reflects shared regional English roots and enduring impact of empire

When the politician Thomas Gould rose to speak in the Irish parliament recently, few expected a lesson in colonial linguistics.

Yet clips of his speech began circulating online last week, with some viewers saying he sounded unmistakably Jamaican. The reaction was animated, particularly among Jamaican heritage communities.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

Relentless sun and ruthless populists: how the climate crisis will change the next 20 years

Former diplomat Arthur Snell says a heating planet is accelerating conflict and migration – and fostering a new age of empire. Democracies are dangerously unprepared, he warns

After a diplomatic career spent in the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, the last place Arthur Snell expected to cheat death was on holiday.

But it was an uncomfortably close brush with a falling boulder while climbing in the Swiss Alps that helped to bring his personal and professional lives together. His beloved mountains were, he realised, becoming less stable thanks to a changing climate. And if physical geography drives the way states exercise their power, as classic geopolitical theory argues, then a heating planet must be dislodging more than rocks.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:00 pm

Trump’s new tariffs may boost his ego – but they’ll damage the economy | Steven Greenhouse

The US president’s plan will hurt consumers, companies and the stock market, as well as relations with other countries

After the US supreme court overturned Donald Trump’s global tariffs, he had two options: do what’s best for the US economy or do what’s best for his ego. Trump of course chose what’s best for his ego, and he did that by seizing on a never previously used legal provision to impose new tariffs that Trump – who can never admit defeat – insists will be just as good as the overturned tariffs.

Unfortunately, Trump’s decision to create a whole new set of tariffs will be bad for both the US economy and the world economy. When one cuts through Trump’s delusional poppycock about how great his new tariffs will be, it becomes clear that his new 15% across-the-board tariff will hurt consumers, corporations, factories, US trading partners and Trump’s beloved stock market. While Trump says “tariffs” is “the most beautiful word”, economists, business executives and consumers give Trump’s tariffs a thumbs down. A huge 64% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of tariffs, according to a new ABC News/WashingtonPost/Ipsos poll.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:00 pm

How Trump officials created ‘nuclear option’ against protesters in church

Critics say administration has overstepped authority in using 1994 law to prosecute protesters and journalists

When dozens of protesters interrupted a church service in St Paul, Minnesota, earlier this year, it revived a fierce yet enduring debate about whether places of worship are appropriate arenas for dissent.

In demanding the resignation of a pastor who leads a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office, demonstrators chanted “ICE out” and “Hands up, don’t shoot!” at Cities church on 18 January. Religious and political leaders condemned the action, fueled by the church’s statement that protesters had “frightened children and created a scene marked by intimidation and threat”.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:00 am

Rise of the veavage: how one look came to rule the red carpet

Forget cleavage. A deep V plunging to the waist is the current style – as seen on Gwyneth Paltrow and many others this year. Why is it suddenly so popular?

Good news for anyone looking to portion off their skin in new and creative ways: we have entered the era of the “veavage”. This new term for a deep, V-shaped cleavage plumbed new depths this weekend at the SAG awards. As seen on (deep breath) Kristen Bell, Jenna Ortega, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Paulson, Odessa A’zion and Lauren Miller, this neck-to-navel style appeared on wafer-thin tops and second-skin dresses. In a red carpet first, veavage somehow outweighed cleavage 2:1. Other recent veavage-flaunters about town include Zendaya, Emma Stone, Elle Fanning and Erin Doherty. Think the boyband JLS meets Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction, by way of a couture gown cut with exacting technical rigour.

The talking point is not the clothes, though. It’s what they leave behind, which is the boobs. Or at least the bit where the boobs usually are. Because the great thing about this trend is that you don’t need boobs to do it. In fact, it’s better without. Or a bra. Nipple tape, which is worn to stop nipples sticking out in frigid temperatures, is probably useful but otherwise you could see it as a cost-saving exercise – a way of using up less fabric. Right?

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:03 am

US submarine sinks Iranian warship as conflict spreads beyond Middle East

Frigate goes down off Sri Lanka as Washington and Israel step up their offensive and promise to hit ‘deeper’ targets in Iran

• Middle East crisis – live updates

A torpedo fired by a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka as the Trump administration followed through on its threats to destroy Tehran’s military and political leadership.

At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack on the Iris Dena on Wednesday. The frigate was sailing in international waters as it returned from a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal. The torpedo strike prompted questions from former US officials about whether Washington’s aim of eliminating all of Iran’s military breached international law.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:50 pm

White House pushes back against mounting questions over any US involvement in Iran school strike – live

Karoline Leavitt bats away question over bombing that reportedly killed 175 people

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Gen Caine said today that the US will “now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory”, after forces were able to establish air superiority.

“The throttle is coming up,” Caine said, “as opposed to ramping down”.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:04 pm

‘He was smart and kind and amazing’: four American soldiers killed in Kuwait remembered

Here’s what we know about the four US service members who have been identified

• Middle East crisis – live updates

More details have emerged about four of the American service members who were killed in an unmanned aircraft system attack in the Shuaiba port in Kuwait on Sunday, the first known US fatalities since the US and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran on Saturday.

The four soldiers were all assigned to the 103rd sustainment command in Des Moines, Iowa, and were “supporting Operation Epic Fury” the Department of Defense said, adding that they “died on March 1, 2026, in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, during an unmanned aircraft system attack”.

Published: March 4, 2026, 6:56 pm

Senate to vote on war powers resolution to prevent Trump from continuing Iran conflict

Republicans expected to vote down resolution introduced by Democrats, who condemned Trump for launching strikes without congressional approval

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Senate Republicans are expected on Wednesday to vote down a Democratic-backed war powers resolution that would prevent Donald Trump from continuing the conflict against Iran, with John Thune, the majority leader, arguing the president is “acting in the best interest of the nation”.

Democrats have condemned Trump for ordering an air campaign against Iran without first seeking permission from Congress, while offering shifting explanations of its objectives. The war powers resolution introduced by Democratic senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff and Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, would force an end to US participation in the current hostilities and require the president to go to Congress before re-entering the war.

Published: March 4, 2026, 11:00 am

How the US-Israeli war on Iran created a massive hole in global airspace

Airlines are using long-readied contingency plans but bottlenecks have formed that no amount of planning can fix

• Middle East crisis – live updates

A war engulfing the Middle East has cleared the region’s skies, forcing airlines to make drastic rerouting plans and leaving a massive void in usually busy global airspace.

With Israel and the US bombing Iran day after day – and Tehran responding with waves of missiles and drones attacks – airlines have been forced to divert their passenger jets away from the Gulf or risk a catastrophic accident.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:21 pm

‘He’s no Winston Churchill’: why Starmer can shrug off Trump’s insults over Iran

The prime minister’s cautious stance about helping the US against the Tehran regime mirrors that of the electorate

• Middle East crisis: live updates

It was perhaps the most attention-grabbing moment of prime minister’s questions. Responding to yet another Conservative salvo about his approach to Iran and how it might affect ties with America, Keir Starmer was direct.

“American planes are operating out of British bases – that is the special relationship in action,” he said. “Sharing intelligence every day to keep our people safe – that is the special relationship in action. Hanging on to President Trump’s latest words is not the special relationship in action.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 6:41 pm

Trump’s ‘quasi-dove’ era is over. Iran strikes expose his hawkish turn

Deploying the world’s most powerful military seems to exert an almost erotic fascination for Donald Trump

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland; sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

It was a claim uttered repeatedly on the 2024 campaign trail: “I’m the only president in 72 years that didn’t start a war,” Donald Trump said in Sioux City, Iowa.

Fact checkers cried foul and pointed out that Jimmy Carter, president from 1977 to 1981, did not start any wars either. But Trump won the election anyway.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:00 pm

Starmer’s slow start in the war against Iran could leave UK playing catch-up

Prime minister’s initial refusal to help US could constrain Britain’s ability to protect its nationals in the Gulf and reassure allies

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Britain knew that the US was considering attacking Iran from the moment Donald Trump told protesters that “help is coming” in the middle of January. It was obvious to the world that the White House was serious when the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group was sent to the Arabian Sea in late January.

But as Trump gradually built up his “massive armada”, reinforcing it with a second carrier strike group in mid-February, UK deployments were constrained and limited even though there was a recognition that it was likely allies and bases with British soldiers would be attacked in an Iranian retaliation.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:43 pm

Attacking Iran’s nuclear programme could drive it towards a bomb, experts warn

Fears US-Israeli onslaught could lead regime to push for bomb or embolden other groups to steal uranium stockpile

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The US-Israeli onslaught against Iran is intended to resolve a 24-year standoff over Tehran’s nuclear programme, but it runs the risk of backfiring and driving the regime towards making a secret bomb, proliferation experts have warned.

The regime in Tehran has long insisted that the programme is for civilian purposes and it has no intention of making a nuclear weapon. However, since two undeclared sites, for uranium enrichment and heavy water plutonium production, were discovered in 2002, the programme has been treated with intense suspicion.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:30 am

Pam Bondi subpoenaed by US House in Jeffrey Epstein investigation

Republicans join Democrats to vote 24-19 to approve motion to compel US attorney general to testify

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Five Republicans on the House oversight committee joined with Democrats to subpoena the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, as part of the ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

The House oversight committee voted 24-19 to approve a motion introduced by Republican representative Nancy Mace to compel Bondi to testify. In addition to Mace, Republican representatives Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Michael Cloud of Texas, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania voted for the motion.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:56 pm

California Democrats defy call from party to abandon crowded race: ‘Voters choose the next governor’

State party chair had urged candidates with no ‘viable path’ to victory to drop out to ensure Democratic win in November

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One day after California’s Democratic party urged candidates without a “viable path” in the state’s crucial race for governor to drop out, the crowded field showed no sign of winnowing down.

At least nine Democrats are in the running to replace the outgoing governor, Gavin Newsom, with no clear frontrunner, which has fueled fears that the number of candidates could lead to two Republicans advancing to the November election.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:04 pm

Elon Musk takes witness stand in trial over Twitter takeover

Twitter investors allege the billionaire publicly derided the social network to sink its stock price and buy it at a bargain

Elon Musk testified Wednesday in a trial brought by Twitter investors, who allege the billionaire committed securities fraud as he was buying the social media company in 2022. The class-action lawsuit alleges Musk agreed to buy Twitter but then waffled for months, attacking the company with the goal of bringing down the stock price to get a better bargain.

After contentious legal wrangling, Musk did eventually buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, his original offer, totalling around $44bn. His lawyers have argued that he did not aim to lower Twitter’s stock price or hurt its investors.

Published: March 4, 2026, 8:47 pm

Texas primaries: will James Talarico finally deliver Democrats a seat in the red state?

Democratic voters in Texas displayed a pragmatic survival instinct in picking Talarico as their US Senate candidate

• James Talarico wins Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas

Never write off the voter. It has been tempting to despair of an electorate that returned Donald Trump to power in 2024. But as the US midterm elections got under way on Tuesday, the big winner was pragmatism.

Democrats in Texas picked James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian who preaches a political gospel of bridging divides, as their nominee for the Senate. He was widely seen as more electable than his primary opponent, Jasmine Crockett, a Texas congresswoman and unapologetic anti-Trump brawler, in a state where Democrats have gone decades without winning a statewide race.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:06 pm

Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests

Analysis shows average levels are 30cm higher than thought, and up to 150cm in south-east Asia and Indo-Pacific

Sea levels around the world have been underestimated due to inaccurate modelling, with research suggesting ocean levels are far higher than previously understood.

The finding could significantly affect assessments of the future impacts of global heating and the effects on coastal settlements.

Published: March 4, 2026, 4:00 pm

Louisiana mayor convicted of raping 16-year-old boy at her home while still in office

Misty Roberts, 43, faces sentences of up to 10 and seven years in prison after July 2024 sexual assault at pool party

The former mayor of a Louisiana city has been convicted of raping a 16-year-old boy during a party at her house while she was still in office.

Misty Roberts, 43, faces sentences of up to 10 and seven years in prison after a jury in the municipality of DeRidder on Tuesday found her guilty of two felonies: carnal knowledge of a juvenile – or statutory rape – as well as indecent behavior with a minor.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:00 am

Bard faculty call for ‘transition’ plan for college president linked to Epstein

Faculty members stop short of calling for Leon Botstein to resign in wake of revelations about ties with sex offender

Members of Bard College’s faculty have called on the group’s board of trustees to develop a “transition in leadership” plan for Leon Botstein but stopped short of calling for the college president to resign in the wake of revelations about his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The board of trustees announced on 19 February that it had retained the outside lawfirm of WilmerHale to conduct an “independent review” into communications between Epstein and Botstein, who has served as the college’s president for 50 years.

Do you have a tip on this story?
Please email Stephanie.Kirchgaessner@theguardian.com

Published: March 4, 2026, 8:55 pm

House opens inquiry into Texas lawmaker over alleged affair with aide

Tony Gonzales allegedly had affair with Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who later died after setting herself on fire

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The House ethics committee said on Wednesday that it has opened an investigation of Tony Gonzales, a Republican representative from Texas, over allegations that include having an affair with an aide.

The top Republican and Democratic members on the committee said in a joint statement that an investigative panel would look into whether Gonzales engaged in sexual misconduct toward an employee in his office and whether he discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges.

Published: March 4, 2026, 4:38 pm

Half of Americans back abolishing ICE amid Trump crackdown, poll finds

YouGov poll shows 50% support as Kristi Noem defends ‘terrorist’ claim and shutdown drags on

Half of Americans support the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, a new poll has found, as opposition to Donald Trump’s aggressive federal immigration crackdown continues to grow.

The analysis by YouGov revealed that exactly 50% of respondents “strongly or somewhat” want to see the agency dismantled, a 5% rise from a January poll taken between the deaths in Minnesota of US citizen protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:14 pm

Ex-Nato commander defends Starmer after Trump’s ‘no Winston Churchill’ jibe

Gen Sir Richard Shirreff says US president has launched war of choice in Iran with no clear grasp of how it will end

• UK politics live – latest updates

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Britain cannot become embroiled in a war “without a clear end point”, a former senior Nato commander has said, as he defended Keir Starmer after Donald Trump’s jibes that he was “not Winston Churchill”.

Trump was “another American president who had launched a war of choice,” said Gen Sir Richard Shirreff, as a minister insisted that the UK prime minister had acted “with a cool head” by not allowing British bases to be used for initial strikes.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:10 am

Trump administration’s bid to halt New York City congestion toll blocked in court

Judge notes New York legislature passed $9 fee and it was signed into law by governor before federal approvals

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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to halt New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion fee meant to reduce traffic and pump revenue into the region’s ageing transit system.

Lewis Liman, a US district judge, on Tuesday ruled that the US Department of Transportation lacked the authority to unilaterally rescind approval of the $9 toll, which was initially greenlighted by Joe Biden.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:59 pm

Small business owners: tell us how Trump’s tariff war has affected you

Trump’s sweeping tariffs have left many businesses facing higher costs and uncertainty. We want to hear how smaller companies are navigating the fallout

Small businesses across the US are reportedly struggling to navigate the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariff wars and the legal battles surrounding them.

Last month, the US supreme court struck down the president’s so-called “liberation day” tariffs, potentially opening the door to as much as $175bn in refunds for businesses that paid the import taxes but the process for claiming that money is complex and uncertain.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:09 pm

Could war in the Middle East trigger a global economic crisis?

Global oil and gas prices have spiked as the conflict in the Middle East halts energy exports from the region. The strait of Hormuz has been in effect closed since the war began, causing fears of a global economic crisis. About a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped through the narrow passage of water, but, according to reports, traffic has dropped by about 80%, with little sign of return. How long until we feel the effects? Nosheen Iqbal speaks to John Collingridge, the Guardian’s head of business.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:04 pm

The Bride! review – Jessie Buckley is electrifying as frizzy-haired, black-tongued monster’s wife

The actor has a blast as bride to Christian Bale’s lonely creature in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s darkly comic and gleefully bizarre reimagining of the 1935 film

Did you know that “Frankenstein” isn’t the name of the monster, but the mad scientist who created him? The answer is almost certainly yes. But that’s no thanks to the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein, which appears to have created this monstrous misconception – because let’s face it, the idea of a middle-aged Swiss scientist getting married isn’t all that shocking. In that sensational Frankenstein sequel with Boris Karloff returning as the monster, Elsa Lanchester was his bride and Mary Shelley, a doubling that may have inspired this new riff on the monster’s other half from writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal. There’s another barnstorming performance from Jessie Buckley as the sinister spouse, leaving savage bite marks all over the scenery and on her gallant co-star Christian Bale. It’s her name, not the title, that deserves the exclamation mark..

This new monster’s-wife tale is a rackety, violent black comedy with twists of Rocky Horror and extended homages to the top-hat-and-tails sophistication of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. It’s also a gangster joyride from the roaring 20s and 30s with Mr and Mrs F-M reimagined as a kind of post-death Bonnie and Clyde. It takes as its premise the idea that Mary Shelley is an angry ghost, spewing out into the shadowy netherworld her patrician contempt for the mediocre menfolk that surrounded her in life, and longing for a suitable living woman to insinuate herself back into.

Published: March 4, 2026, 8:00 pm

Gen Z flocks to Chinese medicine as trust in US health system plummets: ‘It’s so personalized to being human’

As Americans embrace ‘alternative’ remedies, people online joke that they’re ‘Chinamaxxing’ their wellness routines

Did you drink ice water today? If you did, that was “not very Chinese of you”, according to Sherry Zhu, a 23-year-old Chinese American creator based in New Jersey. If you were really serious about “becoming Chinese”, you would be sipping hot water every day, she warned in a TikTok video with millions of views. “I really do feel like, digestion-wise, a lot better when I’m drinking hot water,” she later explained to GQ.

Zhu’s guidance is taken from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a health system that dates back 5,000 years and offers a holistic approach to treating symptoms – physically, emotionally and spiritually. Other creators of Chinese descent have their own TCM hacks: keep your feet warm and your periods will be more bearable. Drink tea made with goji berries, jujubes and ginger as a cure-all. Move your body every day to promote the flow of qi, or internal energy. “Do my Chinese baddie routine with me,” they caption their videos in half-authoritative, half-joking tones. “Advice from your Chinese big sister.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:00 pm

The best beginner pickleball gear, according to pros

The right shoes, paddles, and eye protection can improve your game while preventing injuries

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Maybe it was the contrarian in me, or maybe just the tennis player, but I must confess that I spent years dissing pickleball during its meteoric rise. When I finally decided to give up my grinching and try the sport I had derided as “mini tennis”, I discovered what I’d been missing.

Learning how to play was fun, simple and affordable. I began my journey with a beginner class at Court 16, a New York-based indoor tennis and pickleball club where I started working with coach Dylan DeBiase, assistant director of tennis.

Pickleball shoes:
Wilson Pickle Pro

Pickleball paddle
Joola Journey Pickleball Paddle

Published: March 4, 2026, 8:15 pm

‘A woman of her time, in the worst way’: Industry, Ghislaine Maxwell and the Epstein scandal

An heiress helping to traffic young women to brutal billionaires: the finale of the banker drama used one of its characters to take on a huge real-life scandal

Just who is Yasmin Kara-Hanani? It’s a question that has dogged Industry’s trauma-logged heiress since the series began in 2020. “Who have I married?” wonders Henry Muck, Yasmin’s hapless aristocratic new husband about his ruthlessly ambitious bride in her Lady Macbeth era.

The season four finale solves the mystery with a shocking Epstein-inspired arc. As the Tender scandal spirals, revealing the payment processor/wannabe bank as a front for Russian intelligence, the former Lady Muck cuts and runs from her marriage to Henry, as well as her job in communications at Tender. She is now carving a niche for herself trafficking young women to a transnational crew of brutal billionaires hellbent on breaking the social contract nation by nation. Turns out, Yasmin (Marisa Abela) is a millennial-style take on Ghislaine Maxwell. It’s a ruinous evolution perversely pitched as a dream realised.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:39 pm

I’ve turned AI into my therapist. The results were pretty disquieting

As part of our series AI for the People, our resident AI skeptic Rhik Samadder agreed to put his life in AI’s hands. This week: therapy

• Sign up for AI for the People, a six-week newsletter course, here

It’s Sunday morning, and I type my feelings into the chatbox, too wound-up to stop.

“I’ve become a carer to my 82-year-old mother,” I write. “Every day brings new problems. I help with hospital appointments, finances, gardening, shopping, home repairs, the council, insurance companies, letters, emails, endless IT problems …”

Published: March 4, 2026, 12:00 pm

From MTV Cribs to The Bachelor Mansion: what reality TV homes reveal about viewers

In book Dream Facades, Jack Balderrama Morley examines houses from shows including Keeping Up with the Kardashians to see what we can learn

Houses have always been at the center of reality TV. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous set the domestic stage in the 1980s with its quasi-documentary look into the real lives of the ultra-wealthy. It walked so MTV Cribs could run, and in September 2000, Cribs became what critic Sam Jacob called “the most popular architectural media ever”. Known for its unhinged (and sometimes fake) house tours by the celebrity owners themselves, the hit show’s Ozzy Osbourne episode spun off in 2002 into The Osbournes, which Kris Jenner used for the basis of her pitch for Keeping up with the Kardashians. The rest is history.

In the book Dream Facades: The Cruel Architecture of Reality TV, author Jack Balderrama Morley reflects on residential settings and takes us through these histories, reflecting on how homes and design in reality shows are at once aspirational escapism, sinister characters, extensions of our own desires, and artifacts of American urban history. “I’m interested in what reality TV show homes represent, and why so many of us love getting lost in them,” Morley said. “On screen, they become appendages of our own homes.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:04 pm

JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: how the 1990s power couple became today’s biggest style icons

The TV drama Love Story has brought their fashion back into the spotlight – and inspired nine big trends, from bootcut jeans to backwards caps

When images taken on the set of the Disney+ series Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr & Carolyn Bessette were teased on social media in June, fans were adamant that the show had got the styling wrong. The fictionalised drama details the relationship between John F Kennedy Jr, then the world’s most eligible bachelor, and the fashion publicist Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, tracing their courtship and marriage, which was lived out under the scrutiny of the press.

“This is fashion murder,” wrote one user underneath a picture of Sarah Pidgeon, who plays Bessette Kennedy, and Paul Anthony Kelly, who depicts Kennedy Jr. Such was the outrage that the executive producer Ryan Murphy was forced to defend the styling as “a work in progress”, which led to him hiring a new costume designer, Rudy Mance, to focus on the historical precision. Nine months later, the internet has done a U-turn, with fans now rushing to emulate the couple’s on-screen and off-screen 90s looks. In the past week alone, searches for “Carolyn Bessette style” have increased by 150% on Google. Here are nine trends that the fans are championing.

Published: March 4, 2026, 4:34 pm

Pre-Spice Girls Geri Halliwell dressed as sci-fi character Barbarella: Soulla Petrou’s best photograph

‘She saw these tarot cards on my table and asked me to read her future. I predicted absolutely nothing’

A month or so after I’d broken into music photography, a friend who was a stylist got in touch to say she knew a girl who was going to be in this really huge girl band. I was quite sceptical – it’s the kind of claim you hear a lot working as a photographer – but we ended up arranging to do a shoot at my house.

My friend styled the shoot, which was based on 60s and 70s TV shows and movies we grew up watching, involving strong women fighting evil – things like Wonder Woman and Charlie’s Angels. This one is based on Jane Fonda’s character Barbarella in the 60s sci-fi film, which is one of my favourites, with outfits designed by Paco Rabanne.

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:06 pm

Trump has launched an unprecedented assault on the environment. Where’s the pushback?

Climate deniers expected more resistance to the fossil fuel blitz. But Democrats, billionaires and activists have gone silent

• This story is published in partnership with DeSmog, the climate investigations site

As Donald Trump assaults the legal foundation of America’s ability to regulate global warming emissions, climate deniers have been privately celebrating what they claim is the “silent” acquiescence of billionaires, Democrats, climate activists and even reporters to the president’s aggressive pro-fossil-fuel agenda.

“In my 26 years of being focused on climate, I’ve never seen anything like this. Trump is gutting everything they ever stood for,” Marc Morano, a long-time climate denier, said in January at the World Prosperity Forum, a five-day event in Zurich, Switzerland, billed as a rightwing alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Published: March 4, 2026, 4:56 pm

In these troubled times, who isn’t loving the nostalgia of the Kennedys and Love Story’s 90s New York? | Emma Brockes

It’s monstrously presumptuous? Unforgivably glib? Perhaps. But this stylised drama is the show we all need right now

If you are looking for a break in the clouds from this terrible news cycle, can I direct you towards Love Story, the nine-part series executive-produced – but crucially, not written! – by Ryan Murphy, which documents the love and untimely deaths of John F Kennedy Jr and his wife, Carolyn Bessette. You might think this isn’t for you, that it’ll be too tabloidy or that you’re not interested in JFK Jr. But while Love Story, which takes us back to a very particular version of early-1990s New York, might not seem like the show we want right now, it is exactly the show that we need.

This probably sounds like a heartless summary of a true story that ends in the terrible deaths of two young people (in 1999, while flying his wife and her sister from New Jersey to Martha’s Vineyard, Kennedy crashed his light aircraft, killing everyone on board). But that tragic end only suffuses the preceding nine hours of storytelling with a kind of pearly, nostalgic light, just the thing to see off the iron-grey wash of today’s reality. The New York of Love Story isn’t the city’s current iteration, with its impossible rents and charmless finance bros ruining downtown. Nor is it the 1990s New York of, say, Home Alone 2, in which Donald Trump strides through the Plaza Hotel and Central Park is a crime-ridden disaster.

Emma Brockes 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 4, 2026, 5:25 pm

Nicola Jennings on Donald Trump and Keir Starmer – cartoon

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Published: March 4, 2026, 4:22 pm

The great shared bed debate is here – and you have to pick a side | Polly Hudson

My friend and her partner just sleep wherever, depending on who gets into bed first. Such chaos is unthinkable

How well do any of us really know our friends? You may be confident of the answer to that, feel secure – smug, even – but be warned. One day, a little detail might accidentally slip out, and you’ll suddenly discover they’re not just a stranger, but also a bit weird.

Turns out my friend and her partner don’t have designated sides of the bed. They just sleep wherever, depending on who gets in first, like animals. She did at least have the decency to look ashamed after revealing this, and – perhaps I’m imagining it – also a little relieved. The burden of carrying such a secret must have weighed heavily.

Polly Hudson is a freelance writer

Published: March 4, 2026, 11:00 am

Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman

As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is on track to lose $14bn this year. Its market share is collapsing, and its own CEO, Sam Altman, has admitted it “screwed up” an element of the product. All it takes to accelerate that decline is 10 seconds of your time.

A grassroots boycott called QuitGPT has been spreading across the US and beyond, asking people to cancel their ChatGPT subscriptions. More than a million people have answered the call. Mark Ruffalo and Katy Perry have thrown their weight behind it. It is one of the most significant consumer boycotts in recent memory, and I believe it’s time for Europeans to join.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:00 am

The Guardian view on the US-UK relationship: Trump is pushing Britain closer to Europe | Editorial

An unreliable and volatile American president makes a compelling case for closer security and defence cooperation with continental allies

There is truth to Donald Trump’s declaration earlier this week that the UK-US relationship is “not what it was”, although there is no indication that he understands the reasons for the change.

The US president is “very disappointed” that Sir Keir Starmer has been “uncooperative” in the war against Iran, offering only limited logistical support to American forces. The prime minister’s concession that RAF resources can be involved in defensive operations does not compensate for the prior refusal to put Britain’s military assets at American disposal. It came too late for Mr Trump, whose irritation turned to culture-war jibes about “windmills” ruining British landscapes and a false claim about the prevalence of sharia courts.

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 4, 2026, 6:30 pm

Brighton 0-1 Arsenal, Manchester City 2-2 Nottingham Forest, and more: Premier League – live

⚽ Latest news from four games kicking off at 7.30pm GMT
⚽ Live scores | Table | Follow us on Bluesky | And mail Niall
⚽ Newcastle v Manchester United – follow it live

Some pre-game chat from Pep Guardiola, who confirms Nico O’Reilly is out of the squad after “feeling uncomfortable” in training with a knock.

“We can only focus on ourselves for the rest of the games … I don’t know what is going to happen. Today is how we behave against Forest. Haaland has made an incredible impact since he arrived years ago. In the first quarter of this season he was outstanding. We need everyone. Everyone has to be ready.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:06 pm

‘It’s not acceptable’: Will a small town be left $7.8m on the hook for the World Cup?

At a meeting of the board that governs the World Cup stadium in Foxborough, promises were made if not accepted

Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Foxborough, Massachusetts, Select Board is still minutes from starting, but a local resident can’t keep himself from approaching the bench. He has an urgent question for the five members, who in effect serve as the town’s primary governing body. His tone isn’t one of anger, more of concern.

“Do you think we’re going to have the World Cup here?”

Published: March 4, 2026, 12:59 pm

Formula One 2026: team-by-team guide to the cars and drivers

McLaren could start slowly, Mercedes may set the pace, while newcomers – and returning heroes – add huge interest

Car MCL40 Engine Mercedes Principal Andrea Stella Debut Monaco 1966 GPs 994 Constructors’ titles 10 Last season 1st. Held their nerve to close out the constructors’ and drivers’ double last season, albeit with the latter going to the wire as they rather tied themselves in knots trying to be fair to both drivers. Enter this year a little off the front but in a season likely to be marked by a fierce development battle, will expect to exploit their huge strengths in bringing the car on with alacrity and be in the mix in no short order.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 pm

Burner account or not, Kevin Durant is bitter, petty and entirely relatable

The future Hall of Famer’s behavior over the years has been rash and erratic. But it’s understandable given the scrutiny he finds himself under

They’re calling the posts the “KD Files”. There’s no definitive proof that Kevin Durant is the man behind the X account @gethigher77 (display name: getoffmydickerson), but if he isn’t, somebody has done a phenomenal impersonation. In various screenshots splashed across the internet, getoffmydickerson took shots at Durant’s teammates, as the player himself has done before. There was also creative and amusing trash talk, something Durant has shown a talent for. Some of it crossed the line: the account made a reprehensible joke about supplying drones (Durant invests in the company Skydio, which has provided the Israel Defense Forces with weapons) and called Durant’s teammate Jabari Smith Jr “retarded”. When asked about @gethigher77, Durant said, “I’m not here to get into Twitter nonsense” – far from a denial that he was behind it, and in the eyes of many, confirmation that he was. We’ve got people writing in-depth proofs that the account is real.

Not that getoffmydickerson is Durant’s only problem. Shortly after the tweets blew up, Boardroom, which defines itself as a “sports, media, and entertainment brand” co-founded by Durant and his agent Rich Kleiman, laid off three of its staff writers, rationalizing the move as part of a pivot to video. (An aside: what’s the point of having career earnings of half a billion dollars if you’re not willing to invest some of it to protect your media company from financial headwinds?)

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:00 am

Chiefs reportedly trade All-Pro corner Trent McDuffie to Rams for first-round pick

• Kansas City gain 29th pick in this year’s draft

• Rams also have the 13th selection in 2026 draft

The Los Angeles Rams are acquiring All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie from the Kansas City Chiefs in a blockbuster trade that includes the 29th overall pick of this year’s draft, ESPN reported on Wednesday.

The Chiefs reportedly would also receive the Rams’ fifth- and sixth-round selections in this year’s draft as well as a third-round pick in 2027.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:40 pm

Intercontinental World Cup playoffs in doubt as Iraq squad face travel chaos

• Iraq team due in Mexico for playoff final on 31 March

• Middle East crisis has made travel plans uncertain

The intercontinental World Cup playoffs are in doubt with officials from the Iraq Football Association (IFA) in crisis talks with Fifa over concerns they may be unable to take part in the final scheduled for Mexico later this month.

The Guardian has learned that the IFA received a letter from Iraq’s national airline, Iraqi Airways, and the Ministry of Transportation informing them that the country’s airspace will remain closed for “at least four weeks”, which would leave around 40% of the squad unable to travel.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:15 pm

With or without Lionel Messi, Inter Miami’s Trump visit means something | Leander Schaerlaeckens

The MLS champions face a familiar conundrum: lend credence to a warmongering administration, or sit out and draw heat

Donald Trump was not at the White House when the military he commands began bombing Iran over the weekend. He was at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Florida, following the action from a makeshift situation room apparently built from those curtains that you can wheel away. That’s also where he was when American forces kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife a few weeks earlier.

On Thursday, however, Trump will be at the White House for the really important business – namely, receiving Inter Miami as winners of the 2025 MLS Cup.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:00 am

Manchester United’s Jack Fletcher given six-match ban for homophobic slur

• Incident took place at EFL Trophy game with Barnsley

• Player ‘truly sorry for the offensive word that I used’

Jack Fletcher – the son of club legend Darren Fletcher – has received a six-game ban and been fined £1,500 for calling a Barnsley player a “gay boy”, with the Manchester United midfielder apologising for his conduct.

Fletcher made the comment when playing for United Under-21s in October’s 5-2 EFL Trophy loss at Oakwell. On 62 minutes Fletcher used the homophobic term in an argument with an unnamed Barnsley player, according to the testimony of Will Davis, the referee, who subsequently sent the 18-year-old off. Fletcher admitted the charge, with both the opponent and the FA regulatory commission accepting he did not wish to be intentionally homophobic.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:02 pm

Indian Wells Open: Russians delayed after travel disruptions caused by Middle East crisis

• Medvedev and Rublev both miss pre-event exhibition

• Challenger event in Dubai cancelled over security alert

The Russian tennis players Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev did not arrive at Indian Wells in time to participate in Tuesday night’s southern California exhibition event after they were among those affected by travel disruptions caused by the war on Iran.

The US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran over the weekend and the conflict has led to airspace closures and widespread flight cancellations across parts of the Gulf, disrupting a key transit hub.

Published: March 4, 2026, 11:50 am

Google faces lawsuit after Gemini chatbot allegedly instructed man to kill himself

Lawsuit is first wrongful death case brought against Google over flagship AI product after death of Jonathan Gavalas

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Last August, Jonathan Gavalas became entirely consumed with his Google Gemini chatbot. The 36-year-old Florida resident had started casually using the artificial intelligence tool earlier that month to help with writing and shopping. Then Google introduced its Gemini Live AI assistant, which included voice-based chats that had the capability to detect people’s emotions and respond in a more human-like way.

“Holy shit, this is kind of creepy,” Gavalas told the chatbot the night the feature debuted, according to court documents. “You’re way too real.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:20 pm

Blackout in Cuba leaves millions without power amid US oil chokehold

Latest outage darkens island facing dwindling oil reserves and increasing pressure from Washington

A blackout hit the western half of Cuba on Wednesday, leaving millions of people in Havana and beyond without power in the latest outage to affect an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electricity grid.

The government’s Electric Union confirmed the outage on social platform X, saying it affected people from the eastern town of Pinar del Rio to the central town of Camaguey.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:42 pm

Putin accuses Ukraine of attacking gas tanker that exploded and sank off Libya

The Arctic Metagaz burst into flames before sinking after what the Russian president described as a terrorist attack

Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of carrying out a terrorist attack on one of Russia’s liquefied natural gas carriers which exploded into flames and sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya.

The Arctic Metagaz had been sanctioned by the US and EU for being part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of ageing tankers that carry its oil and gas around the world, skirting Western restrictions.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:51 pm

Tech firm fined $1.1m by California for selling high-school students’ data

GoFan penalized for breaching privacy laws after students used service to sign up for football games and school prom

The California Privacy Protection Agency has fined tech company GoFan $1.1m for swiping and selling data from high school students across the state who used the service to sign up for events including football games, school plays and senior prom.

Before signing up for school events, software by GoFan – a ticketing business owned by PlayOn, a media company that streams high school sports games – prompted users to accept conditions, including allowing the company to collect users’ personal information and sell it to advertisers. Users could only proceed to buy their tickets if they hit a white “agree” button. They did not have the option to opt out.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:44 pm

Workers at top 20 US low-wage firms rely on public assistance, report says

Exclusive: study finds workers at 20 S&P 500 firms rely on Medicaid and Snap as CEO pay and buybacks soar

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Many workers at some of the largest US corporations have no choice but to rely on healthcare and food assistance because of low wages, even as CEO compensation continues to grow, according to a new report released Wednesday.

The report, published by the Institute of Policy Studies, focuses on 20 of the S&P 500 corporations that have primarily US-based workforces and report the lowest median wages of the group.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:00 pm

Syngenta says it will stop making pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease

Company will halt production of controversial paraquat weed killer by end of June as it faces thousands of lawsuits

Syngenta, maker of a controversial pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease, said on Tuesday that it would stop making its paraquat weed killer by the end of June.

The announcement comes as the company is facing several thousand lawsuits brought by people in the US who allege they developed Parkinson’s disease due to their exposure to Syngenta’s paraquat products.

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:18 pm

World’s largest krill harvester at centre of row over ‘blue tick’ sustainability label

Aker QRILL is facing criticism of its fishery management amid calls by environmentalists for curbs on Antarctic fishing of the keystone species

Environmental groups have objected to the recommendation of a “blue tick” sustainability label being awarded to a Norwegian krill fishing giant, amid concerns over concentrated fishing pressure and dramatic climate-driven effects on the Antarctic’s fragile ecosystem.

Norway’s Aker QRILL, the world’s largest harvester of krill, a tiny crustacean and keystone of Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem, and its sister company, Aker BioMarine, produce feed additives for aquaculture and dietary supplements for pets and humans.

Published: March 4, 2026, 11:00 am

Global economy must stop pandering to ‘frivolous desires of ultra-rich’, says UN expert

Olivier De Schutter says new economic agenda needed to tackle crises of rising inequality and ecological collapse

The global economy must be reordered to ensure it serves ordinary people around the world rather than the “frivolous and destructive demands of the ultra-rich”, according to a leading UN figure.

Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, says politicians must stop prioritising “socially and ecologically destructive growth” that only increases the profits – and serves the consumption demands – of the world’s richest individuals and corporations.

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:11 pm

After months of speculation, Gayle King is staying at CBS News

The morning show host’s contract extension is a victory for the Bari Weiss-led network news division

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CBS News has signed a new deal with Gayle King after intense speculation about the future of the CBS Mornings co-host’s role at the network.

King has been the centerpiece of the network’s morning show for years now, and her departure would have been a huge blow to the Bari Weiss-led network news division, which also recently lost another marquee talent with the departure of 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:10 pm

Father of Georgia school shooting suspect found guilty of murder and manslaughter

Prosecutors argued Colin Gray gave 14-year-old son, who is accused of killing four in 2024 shooting, access to firearm

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The father of a teenage boy accused of killing two students and two teachers in a mass shooting at a Georgia high school in 2024 was found guilty on Tuesday of second-degree murder and other charges.

After roughly two weeks of testimony, jurors deliberated for just a few hours before convicting 54-year-old Colin Gray on more than two dozen charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, related to the 4 September fatal shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia.

Published: March 3, 2026, 6:35 pm

Kristi Noem refuses to retract statement calling Minnesotans killed by federal agents ‘domestic terrorists’

Homeland security secretary was grilled in Senate hearing over immigration enforcement crackdown in Twin Cities

• US politics live – latest updates

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The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, on Tuesday would not retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”, while also claiming that agents do not abide by quotas for arrests.

Appearing before Congress for the first time since the killings, Noem evaded a question by the Senate judiciary committee’s ranking member, Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, about whether she would take back the false accusations about Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Published: March 3, 2026, 10:45 pm

DoJ renews fight against law firms that stood up to Trump in abrupt reversal

Move comes day after department said it would drop fight against law firms that stood up to Trump’s executive orders

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The US justice department abruptly reversed course on Tuesday and decided it would defend executive orders made by Donald Trump to try to penalize law firms that represented clients or causes the president did not like.

On Monday, the department announced in a court filing that it was dropping its appeal against a ruling by a district court judge that blocked Trump’s retaliatory executive actions against four companies that refused to make a deal with him.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:16 pm

Europe’s next-generation fighter jet project may collapse if row continues, says warplane maker

Dassault Aviation says €100bn project may soon be ‘dead’ if Airbus will not agree on how to share workload

France and Germany’s next-generation fighter jet project could soon be “dead”, one of the two companies tasked with delivering it has warned, amid a worsening corporate rift over who gets to build the aircraft.

Dassault Aviation, France’s leading warplane maker, said Airbus’s defence arm – which represents Germany and Spain – needed to cooperate on the €100bn programme otherwise it would collapse.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:54 pm

Union tries to seize control of works council at Tesla’s German factory

Lawsuits and slander claims fly in IG Metall’s battle with Elon Musk over employment rights and conditions

• Business live – latest updates

Europe’s largest trade union is trying to gain control of the works council at Elon Musk’s Tesla gigafactory near Berlin, in an industrial relations showdown marked by lawsuits and mutual accusations of slander.

The works council, an elected body of employees that negotiates everything from working hours to pay deals with a company’s management, is considered an entrenched aspect of the German corporate world, particularly in the car industry.

Published: March 4, 2026, 4:18 pm

Curling stones worth £750 stolen from Cortina venue before Winter Paralympics

• Theft of two stones in Italy being investigated

• Mixed doubles wheelchair event started on Wednesday

The theft of two curling stones due to be used at the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics is being investigated, World Curling has confirmed.

Action in Italy got under way on Wednesday night with the round robin of the inaugural mixed doubles wheelchair competition, but the drama started earlier when it was discovered the rocks, believed to be worth about £750, were missing from Cortina’s curling stadium.

Published: March 4, 2026, 8:01 pm

Actor reaches settlement with Old Vic theatre over Kevin Spacey assault claims

Ruari Cannon agrees out-of-court settlement with London theatre over the allegations, which Spacey denies

An actor who alleged that he was sexually assaulted by Kevin Spacey has reached a settlement with the Old Vic theatre.

Ruari Cannon, who waived his right to anonymity, was an actor at the Old Vic during Spacey’s tenure as artistic director.

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:13 pm

Harry Styles on Liam Payne’s death: ‘It’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways’

The musician reflected on the death of his former One Direction bandmate in an interview with Zane Lowe to promote his new album

Harry Styles has reflected on the death of his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne in a new interview with Zane Lowe.

“It’s so difficult to lose a friend,” Styles said. “It’s difficult to lose any friend, but it’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:51 pm

And the least likable character is … how Oscar season became dominated by difficult people

From Marty Supreme to One Battle After Another, this awards run has been populated by a harder-to-love group of spiky characters

Broadly speaking, the best way to get an acting Oscar is to play someone lovable, or someone lovably hateable. Not every acting winner fits that binary, of course, but the history of all four categories is filled with fascinatingly bad behavior (Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, JK Simmons in Whiplash) as well as expressions of sheer delight at the combination of actor and lovable character (Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love). This year’s crop of acting nominees isn’t exactly short of rooting interests: Michael B Jordan makes his pair of 1930s gangsters charming twice over in Sinners while still distinguishing between their individual nuances, and Benicio del Toro’s even-keeled activist is highly lovable in One Battle After Another. Elsewhere, though, there’s definitely a stronger-than-usual strain of characters who defy the usual standards of easy likability.

The importance of likability in an Oscar campaign is akin to its importance in a political one – though in the case of the Academy awards, performers are campaigning twice, for themselves as actors and, essentially, for their characters as part of the cinematic firmament. That’s why likability is arguably the secret accelerant to the longtime trend of the awards going to actors playing real-life figures. It’s not just about a physical transformation or seamless impersonation, because many of those biographical performance aren’t really that when you put them side by side with the real thing. It’s that extra rooting interest that comes from embodying Freddie Mercury, Winston Churchill, Stephen Hawking, Abraham Lincoln, Judy Garland – people who Academy voters probably already like or admire to some degree, at least in the abstract. Suffering, too, can help create an easier sense of empathy.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:02 am

Seth Meyers on Trump spilling military secrets: ‘He’s so excited to bomb people, he can’t help himself’

Late-night hosts on Tuesday addressed the war in Iran, the closing of Papa Johns restaurants and the upcoming White House correspondents dinner

Late-night hosts criticized Donald Trump’s attacks on Iran, the problem with advising Americans to evacuate the Middle East and the closure of many college students’ favorite pizza takeout spot.

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:31 pm

Dolly review – six-foot mannequin terrorises camping couple in gory, trope-filled horror

Rising scream queen Fabianne Therese’s ability to channel distress somewhat redeems film in which an attractive, therefore doomed, couple learn major lesson

Horror cinema presents yet another persuasive reason why you should never go camping, with this gory thriller that proves no good can come from walking in the woods, seeking pretty hilltop views or communing with nature in any way.

The attractive and therefore doomed couple who learn this lesson the hard way are Macy (up and coming scream queen Fabianne Therese) and Chase (Seann William Scott, for ever Stifler from American Pie). As the story begins, Chase is planning to propose to Macy, and intends to pop the question at the top of a mountain after a hike, because he is a fool who has clearly never seen a horror film. But Macy has doubts about whether she is ready to become a full-on stepmother to Chase’s daughter Evy (Eve Blackhurst, possibly related to the film’s writer-director Rod Blackhurst).

Published: March 4, 2026, 11:00 am

Young Sherlock review – the detective in Guy Ritchie’s geezerish caper has the charisma of a naff waiter

Loud, brash and blokey, it’s not nearly as fresh as the director’s last take on the sleuth 15 years ago. There are flashes of fun, even if Moriarty blows the lead off the screen

Guy Ritchie has made a new TV series about Sherlock Holmes and the long and the short of it is … hmm. But first, some questions. Does the eight-part mystery-drama include scenes in which flippant young men in flat caps shout “Oi” while hurtling through the air in slow motion? It does. Are there bare knuckle biff-ups during which bulbous cockneys cheer on other bulbous cockneys and Irish folk music diddles frantically in the background? There are. Might there also be bits where everything suddenly goes really fast for no reason, effortful banter between bruisers in tweed trousers, blundering rozzers and the sense that while female characters are welcome to contribute to the plot, they are very much excluded from being any sort of fun?

Well, duh. Or rather, strike a light an’ cor blimey, guv’nor, you’ve got this Guy Ritchie geezer bang to rights. For here is Young Sherlock, a very large and very loud new series for Prime Video that was “executive produced and directed by the man who made Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, then that one with Brad Pitt, then some other films that weren’t either of those ones apparently” written through it like a stick of bleedin’ rock.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Outgunned review – action-thriller in Angola sees sadistic child-hunting gang out for revenge

Danica De La Rey Jones’s elite fighter is targeted in a film that would be more exciting if its padded runtime was trimmed down

Here is an action-thriller that opens with some zesty Call of Duty-style military violence unfolding in Angola in 2013. A crack unit believe themselves to be in pursuit of poachers who kill protected animals for profit, but these baddies turn out to be all that and more: they kidnap children, burying them underground in coffins with a wifi connection so that they can broadcast live footage of the kids to their parents when they demand ransom money. In short, they’re not very nice people. Elite fighter Jessica (Danica De La Rey Jones) handily wrecks their operation and now, more than a decade later, they’re after revenge.

The revenge takes the form of hunting this resourceful single mother, whom they have finally located despite a change of identity, through the bushland of South Africa, with a motley crew of villains all loosely connected to the enterprise she took down back in the day. Their leader is a relentless sadist called Lazar, who is written as a fairly one-note character – and that note is simply, “he’s evil” – but full credit to actor Richard Lukunku for finding a way to smash that one note over and over again in a manner that’s actually pretty effective in a blunt-force trauma kind of way.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:00 am

Harry Styles: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally review – nice all the time. Good, occasionally

(Columbia)
The music on Styles’s new album is muted, subtle and pleasant – but from the title downwards, he has a real problem with words

Everything about the launch of Harry Styles’s fourth solo album underlines that its author is a very big deal indeed. Record stores in the UK are opening at midnight or first thing in the morning on the day of release, the better for fans to avail themselves of a copy at once. Styles has been announced as curator of this year’s Meltdown festival at London’s Southbank Centre, an honour previously bestowed on Scott Walker, Patti Smith, Yoko Ono, Ornette Coleman and David Bowie. Last week’s Brit awards featured not merely a beautifully choreographed performance of the album’s lead single, Aperture, but a comedy skit that was, essentially, a two-and-a-half-minute-long advert for Styles’s new album: there was no doubt who the organisers thought the star of the show was. Most striking of all, the accompanying tour largely eschews actual touring in favour of lengthy residencies in one venue per country, or even continent: North America is covered by a staggering 30 dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The expectation seemed to be that Styles’s fans are so devoted, they’ll cross the country to see him, rather than vice versa.

This sense, that people will travel wherever Harry Styles wants them to, attends the album itself. It is devoid of unequivocal pop bangers along the lines of As It Was or Watermelon Sugar. Aperture’s hazy, post-club mood wasn’t a soft launch. Whether it’s dealing in mid-tempo house beats topped with plangent piano chords, as on American Girls, or the acoustic singer-songwriter-isms of Paint By Numbers, a lot of what’s here feels like music made in the small hours, with the curtains drawn against the dawn. It somehow manages to sound understated even on Are You Listening Yet? – which variously features a clattering dance rhythm, a bassline not unlike that of Reel 2 Real’s I Like to Move It and a spoken word vocal that inexorably recalls Robbie Williams’s Rock DJ – perhaps because it doesn’t really have a chorus, or rather, the part you assume is going to lead into the chorus turns out to be the chorus itself.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Corinne Bailey Rae: ‘If you weren’t tits-out-for-the-lads, they called you middle of the road’

Her first album was a huge hit – then she faced the sudden tragedy of her husband’s early death. She describes the rupture of grief, her return to music and the harsh reality of fame as a woman in the 00s

Twenty years ago, Corinne Bailey Rae had her first huge hit single, and her only one. Put Your Records On was one of the great feelgood anthems of 2006. A warm, breezy hymn to authenticity, its key message was keep playing those songs you love, and don’t give a toss about what others tell you is cool. The single was accompanied by her first self-titled album, which topped the charts in the UK and reached number four in the US.

If there was one thing Bailey Rae seemed assured of, it was longevity. She wrote or co-wrote her own songs, had a voice that was compared to that of Billie Holiday and Minnie Riperton, there was a timelessness to her music and she was super smart (four As at A-level, if you must know). Then she was hit by a tragedy that derailed her. In 2008, her husband of seven years and fellow musician Jason Rae died of an accidental drug overdose.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 am

‘We had no future. So we made a future for ourselves’: the untold history of Welsh reggae sound systems

A country known more for rock and choral music became a hotspot of the dub reggae sound system scene in the 70s. Rival crews recall Cardiff’s riotous parties – and racist hostility

Growing up Black in Wales in the 1970s, “it was like we were cut off from the rest of mankind”, says Lawrence “Tylo” Taylor. “There was nothing for young Black people.”

Despite Cardiff being home to one of the oldest Black communities in the UK, stretching back to the 19th century, it could be a tough place. “As children, the police would abuse you, calling you a Black bastard,” Tylo says. “There was pure racism in school and you’d be singled out by teachers and belittled. We grew up very disillusioned.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:29 pm

From David Bowie to Fleetwood Mac and Eric Clapton, Mike Vernon’s ear was invaluable to British pop and blues

The musician, producer and label head, who has died aged 81, turned his boyhood passion for blues into a hugely impactful career

Mike Vernon, who has died aged 81, was the ultimate schoolboy blues nut. First he published a blues fanzine, next he persuaded Decca Records to hire him to produce British blues bands, then he started his own indie label issuing 45s of African American blues artists, before CBS agreed to finance his Blue Horizon label. From the 1970s on, he would record and perform as a solo artist and band member; he was a producer for David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton and more. His was a life determined by his love for music, and he served his muse generously for more than 60 years.

Vernon’s upbringing in Surrey was typical of many children born in the mid-1940s: he sang in his church choir, listened to the jazz and show tune LPs his parents owned and was bowled over by the arrival of rock’n’roll, responding most strongly to the likes of Little Richard, Fats Domino and Larry Williams. Inquisitive and determined, he sought out records by older African American blues and R&B artists then, while studying at Croydon Art College, started following the fledgling British blues bands led by Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner.

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:45 pm

Chasing Freedom by Simukai Chigudu review – a powerful memoir of postcolonial unease

A historian and exponent of ‘Rhodes must fall’ explores how political liberation doesn’t always bring personal freedom

To be part of Zimbabwe’s “Born Free” generation was to be handed a promise: that your life would no longer be shaped by colonial rule. Skin colour would not dictate the right to vote, learn or work. For Simukai Chigudu, born in 1986, six years after independence, that promise was stamped on him from the very beginning: “Your name, Simukai, it means to stand up,” his father, a former liberation fighter, tells him.

Yet, as Chigudu reflects in his compelling memoir, the end of colonial rule does not mean freedom from historical events and how they reverberate in everyday life. He tells two interlinked stories: Zimbabwe’s brutal war of independence, and his own search for belonging in the years that followed. It is a wide-ranging, restless book, passing through Uganda, Rwanda, Ireland and Mexico City. Yet at its centre are Zimbabwe and Britain, “former colony and metropole”, and the unfinished business between them.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:00 am

The Quantity Theory of Morality by Will Self review – raucously inventive state-of-the-nation satire

Thirty-five years on from his debut collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Self takes aim at London’s chattering classes in an excoriating vision of moral decline

In Will Self’s 1991 debut collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity, an art therapist named Misha Gurney finds himself involuntarily sectioned in the psychiatric hospital where he is employed. In the title story, Misha’s father is revealed as a friend and early associate of the hospital’s chief psychiatrist Zack Busner, a recurring character in Self’s fiction until the present day.

In his first incarnation, Busner is engaged in testing the titular theory, by whose metric “the surface of the collective psyche was like the worn, stripy ticking of an old mattress. If you punched into its coiled hide at any point, another part would spring up – there was no action without reaction, no laughter without tears, no normality without its pissing accompanist.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:00 am

They by Helle Helle review – a novel to make the reader slow down and take notice

Minimalist but never austere, this mother-daughter portrait from the Danish author finds its power in everyday detail

The Danish author Helle Helle’s They, published in the UK in a pin-sharp translation by Martin Aitken, charts the subtle and shifting bond between a teenage daughter and an ailing mother in prose that is minimalist but never austere. It’s one of those novels where little is spoken but everything, by the end, gets said.

The unnamed mother and 16-year-old daughter live above a hairdresser’s in a Danish backwater on the island of Lolland, where nothing much goes on. They walk across the spring-awoken fields, they shop for groceries, they join an evening class. Details of their past are scanty, fugitive: a few house moves, but nothing about the daughter’s father, who exerts a vague apophatic presence. Mostly, they enjoy a frictionless, symbiotic closeness: “They sit by the window a lot, and on the settee, and with the free local weekly … They lift their mugs, sip synchronous mouthfuls.”

Published: March 3, 2026, 9:00 am

The Last Kings of Hollywood by Paul Fischer review – the rise and reign of Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola

An epic account of how three demigod directors, in pursuit of indie freedom, redefined American film-making

Here we are once more: back to the glory days of the New Hollywood that emerged from the ashes of the old studio system in the 1960s and 70s. Our cast is filled with brilliant hotshots and creative risk-takers, energised by the French New Wave, the American counterculture and the industry’s own amazing entrepreneurial past.

Peter Biskind’s breezy, bleary, cynical book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls ranged freely across the 1970s, with controversial anecdotes about egos and drugs (though maybe the definitive book about the role of cocaine in film production has yet to be written). Mark Harris’s Scenes from a Revolution had the witty idea of looking at the five films Oscar-nominated for best picture in the transitional year of 1968, from the supercool Bonnie and Clyde to the squaresville Dr Doolittle, to see what they told us about America’s cinematic mind at the time.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Even for fans like me, the Pokémon 30th anniversary ‘stuff’ is a bit much

With the wait for the new Winds and Waves games set to stretch into 2027, Pokemon’s 30th anniversary celebrations have plugged the gap with a deluge of nostalgia bait. Is the franchise in danger of losing its heart?

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It has been almost impossible to escape Pokémon for the past few weeks. To mark the 30th anniversary of the original games, the Pokémon Company has been on an unprecedented promotional nostalgia trip for the entire month: there was a campaign where celebrities gushed about their favourite Pokémon, gifting us the memorable sight of Lady Gaga singing with a Jigglypuff, and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (great Game Boy Advance remakes of the original 1996 games) were rereleased on the Nintendo Switch. The Natural History Museum in London has opened a special Pokémon pop-up shop, and a limited-edition greyscale Pikachu plush toy sold out in about three seconds (they will be making more, to the disappointment of scalpers everywhere).

And all that is just the start. We’ve seen the opening of a Pokémon theme park in Tokyo, the announcement of a tiny Game Boy-shaped music player that plays the games’ soundtrack, a collaboration with high-fashion brand JimmyPaul that had its own runway show … it’s been endless. Regular readers will know that I am exactly the target audience for this festival of Pokémon nostalgia: the first generation of Pokémon kids and now hurtling towards 40. And yet I have been unmoved by most of this, even slightly annoyed by it.

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:00 pm

Five of the most interesting upcoming indie games

From the ghostly Shutter Story to road trip adventure Outbound and strategy puzzler Titanium Court, here are the titles we enjoyed the most from this year’s Steam Next Fest showcase

These days, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that every new indie game is either a co-op extraction shooter or a roguelike deck-builder – fortunately that’s not quite the case. Each February, the week-long Steam Next Fest is a vast and varied showcase of forthcoming titles, all with downloadable demos, and only a minority of them adhere to those dominant genres. It’s a lovely chance to dig into the sometimes bewildering Steam store and pick out interesting treats – and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Here are five of my favourites.

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

Berlin film festival head to keep job after Gaza free speech row

German government convened a crisis meeting after several prize winners condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians

The American head of the Berlin film festival, Tricia Tuttle, will keep her job after a free speech row over Gaza, but the event will have to consider a new code of conduct to “fight antisemitism”, the German culture ministry has said.

Tuttle’s position came under threat after an awards gala at the end of the 76th edition last month, in which several prize winners condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians from the stage.

Published: March 4, 2026, 4:50 pm

‘He paints phalluses the way others paint landscapes’: the disturbing genius of erotica pioneer Félicien Rops

A new exhibition at Kunsthaus Zurich revisits the Belgian artist whose wild women of the demimonde scandalised the belle epoque – and still shock audiences today

During an oppressively hot week in Paris in 1878, the bohemian Belgian artist Félicien Rops painted a picture of a woman walking her pet pig. In it, the woman is blindfolded and naked – bar some stockings, long black gloves and a jaunty feathered hat – and the pig has a cute, pink curlicue of a tail. Pornocrates – which roughly translates as “the ruler of fornication” – is an eye worm. Once seen, it’s hard to forget.

Rops recalled composing his most famous work “in an overheated apartment, full of different smells, where the opopanax and cyclamen gave me a slight fever conducive towards production or even towards reproduction”. As viewers of Laboratory of Lust, a new exhibition on Rops at Kunsthaus Zurich, will discover to their amazement, or perhaps indignation, mating and painting were indelibly linked in Rops’ psyche.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:00 am

‘The camera is my weapon of choice’: Gordon Parks’ era-defining shots of segregation – and those who defied it

The visionary photographer captured the ugliness of racism in America, as well as the strength and dignity of those who opposed it – from cleaners in the corridors of power to Martin Luther King Jr proclaiming his dream

In the summer of 1956, the American news magazine Life dispatched its first Black staff photographer, Gordon Parks, to Alabama, with a brief to document racial segregation in the wake of the Montgomery bus boycott. The trip was a perilous one, but Parks, then in his early 40s, was already on a career trajectory that would mark him out as one of the most consequential artists of his generation. The images he returned with were remarkable: intimate and vivid depictions of the daily disgrace of the Jim Crow south. They still feel prescient today.

The photographs form the backbone of a new survey of Parks’ work, opening this week at the Alison Jacques gallery in London and curated by Bryan Stevenson, the famed civil rights attorney. Stevenson is based in Montgomery where he founded a museum and memorial to commemorate Black victims of lynchings and where some of Parks’ work hangs on permanent display. He selected images taken between 1942 and 1967, the artist’s most active time as a photographer and an acute period of unrest in the American experiment.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Susan Choi and Katie Kitamura among authors longlisted for Women’s prize for fiction

Sixteen novels are in contention for the £30,000 award, now in its 31st year, with settings ranging from climate-ravaged islands to a near-future Kolkata

Katie Kitamura, Susan Choi, Kit de Waal and Lily King are among the authors longlisted for this year’s Women’s prize for fiction.

Awarded annually and now in its 31st year, the prize comes with £30,000, and is one of the most prominent accolades for women’s writing in the English language. The 16-strong list features a selection of novels that range in setting from climate-ravaged islands to a near-future Kolkata, and from 1970s Birmingham to East Berlin on the brink of reunification.

To browse all books in the Women’s prize for fiction 2026 longlist, visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

Declutter, define, discard: seven easy and cheap home organization tips, from experts

Organizing your home doesn’t have to use up all your retirement savings, time or peace of mind

Overcurated home organization content has flourished on social media for the past decade: well-lit photos of pantries, closets and bathrooms with contents arranged in clear acrylic bins. Usually, everything is color coordinated.

I love a tidy, organized space, but these images stress me out. My mouth gets dry when I imagine the upkeep necessary to keep those spaces looking pristine. How much does it cost to acquire hundreds of identical storage bins? How long did it take to aesthetically arrange Khloé Kardashian’s cookies like that? Is this really what I’m supposed to be doing with my one wild and precious life?

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:00 pm

A moment that changed me: my girlfriend criticised my kisses – and it led to the best decision of my life

She said kissing me was like licking an ashtray, and I knew I had to quit smoking. But with a 40-a-day habit, it was no easy task ...

In 1970, as an 18-year-old college freshman in Boston, living away from home for the first time, I started to smoke cigarettes. A pack a day grew in short order to two packs a day, or a cigarette about every 30 minutes.

I choreographed my life around my smokes, puffing away after every meal, taking a drag with a drink and blowing smoke rings as I wrote, usually late into the night. I needed no pretext for smoking, but found plenty; every occasion fit the bill.

Published: March 4, 2026, 6:45 am

A quick hack for looking A Bit Dressed Up? Just add a dash of shine | Jess Cartner-Morley

If you want to add some glitz to elevate your look, try shiny earrings, metallic shoes or a snazzy belt

Once in a while, it is fun to pull out all the stops and get properly dressed up. To wear something gorgeous and probably impractical, do your makeup carefully, rather than in two and a half minutes, and coerce a family member into taking a photo before you leave the house.

It is awards season, and red carpet fashion hoopla is all around us. But for those of us who don’t have an Oscar nomination, the nights that call for weapons-grade glam are few and far between, especially at this time of year. Which is fine by me because, frankly, who has the time? In real life, for most of us, quick styling hacks when you want to look A Bit Dressed Up are way more useful than a ball gown. Accessories that elevate your look from blah to belle, easy tricks that give your outfit a sense of occasion. These, not the bells-and-whistles party dresses, are the real treasures of your wardrobe.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

YSL lights up Paris fashion week show with return of Le Smoking suit

Anthony Vaccarello marks decade at helm of fashion house with powered-up take on Yves Saint Laurent’s classic

The most famous suit in the world, Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, has returned to the Paris catwalk 60 years after its invention.

Designed by the late couturier to be worn by men in smoking rooms to protect clothing from the smell of cigars, he adapted it for women, slimming the trousers and lapels. It wasn’t a runaway success – only one sold from his 1966 collection – but it became a global symbol of power dressing and gender dismantling, and would appear in every collection until Saint Laurent retired in 2002.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:23 am

Dior turns up springtime-in-Paris for Anderson’s second womenswear show

Northern Irish designer ditches darker undercurrents for seductive vision of Monet’s waterlilies at opening show of Paris fashion week

In a dark news cycle, joy sells. With his second major womenswear show for Dior, the Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson put a pin in the soul-searching of his first season and plunged gleefully for the springtime-in-Paris jugular. For the opening show of Paris fashion week, Dior offered a seductive vision of Monet’s waterlilies, walks in the Tuileries gardens, and the Eiffel Tower glittering in the sunshine.

Anderson, a keen art collector who moved to Paris for the Dior role last year, has been looking at Seurat’s romantic paintings of ordinary Parisians at leisure, as well as Monet. A promenade across the octagonal pond of the Tuileries was built as a catwalk, and the Sunday sailboats upgraded for the occasion into giant lily pads with vibrant blooms. Dollhouse-sized pairs of classic French green park chairs were sent out as whimsical invitations.

Published: March 3, 2026, 3:39 pm

Why do my potatoes go black after cooking? | Kitchen aide

A drop of lemon and being selective about your choice of cookware could zap any troubles with blackened spuds, as would a highly novel solution from the seaside

Why do some potatoes turn black on cooking, and how do I stop this happening? I usually leave them to cool in the cooking water, but should I plunge them in cold water instead?”
Jean, Hampshire
“We’ve all been there,” sympathises spud queen Poppy O’Toole. “It’s a harmless chemical reaction,” the author of The Potato Book continues, “but it looks rank and only gets worse with the slow cooling process that Jean’s using.” But let’s wind things back for a moment. According to the food science guru Harold McGee, in his bible On Food & Cooking, the darkening of cooked potatoes “is caused by the combination of iron ions, a phenolic substance [chlorogenic acid] and oxygen, which react to form a pigmented complex”. So what’s the solution? Make the pH of the water “distinctly acidic”, which McGee does by adding cream of tartar or lemon juice “after the potatoes are half-cooked”.

Another possible suspect for Jean’s blackening tubers is her cookware: “Reactive metals such as a carbon steel knife or aluminium pan may also be the cause of the issue,” says the Guardian’s Tom Hunt, which is why he recommends using a non-reactive metal (think stainless steel) instead. “Leaving the cooked potatoes in water is also a bad idea,” adds Jess Murphy, chef patron of Kai Galway in Ireland and author of The Kai Cookbook:“They are like little sponges.” Hunt couldn’t agree more: “The potatoes will absorb the water and turn soggy and less fluffy – and never refresh them under cold water or in a cold plunge, either, unless it’s momentary.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

Want a better job and a pay rise? Eleven ways to progress at work – and avoid a ‘dry promotion’

Keep your boss happy, develop your ‘personal boardroom’, ask for honest feedback, don’t take the notes in every meeting and remember: no one gets promoted for inbox zero

There is nothing worse than feeling stuck in a job. What are the best ways to progress without having to resort to shameless self-promotion? Here, career coaches explain how to make sure you are first in line for a promotion – and a pay rise.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Stuffed peppers and aubergine dip: Sami Tamimi’s recipes for savoury Palestinian snacks

Peppers stuffed with freekeh, lamb and spicy tomato sauce, and a classic Levantine aubergine dip with preserved lemon and dill

I still remember, when I was a kid, the end of spring and early summer when markets in Jerusalem and across Palestine overflowed with freshly harvested freekeh. As you approached, the air carried a smoky, earthy aroma. Freekeh is an ancient grain, a staple across the Middle East and Turkey, made from green wheat roasted over open fires to burn off the husks, which gives it the characteristic nutty flavour. The name comes from the Arabic freek, meaning “to rub”, which describes how the grains are cleaned, dried, cracked and stored for the year.

Published: March 4, 2026, 6:00 am

Minab school bombing: how the worst mass casualty event of the Iran war unfolded – a visual guide

A strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh school during the US-Israeli bombing campaign killed up to 168 people. The Guardian has pieced together the incident and its aftermath using verified footage and images from the site

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Above the pastel murals of trees, paintbrushes, crayons and microscopes, black smoke rises. The glass windows of the school have been blown out by the force of the blast, and its curtains hang shredded from the frames.

Against one burned-out wall, the remains of a playground lie scattered: a red plastic slide, a jumble of child-sized chairs. On an overturned bookshelf a pair of pink plastic sandals have been neatly placed, now covered in dust from the blast.

Published: March 3, 2026, 12:45 pm

Women behind the lens: ‘The women watched the fuel tanker advance with uncertainty and fear’

On the Ecuador-Peru border the Siekopai people fight to protect the Amazon from the oil industry and other threats – and women are at the forefront of the resistance

In June 2025, I accompanied a group of Siekopai women along the Aguarico River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Mothers, daughters, cousins and granddaughters had reunited to participate in the Binational Ceramics Gathering in Siekoya Remolino, a community that has remained free from oil extraction, mining and African palm monocultures.

They were welcomed by the Keñao Productive Women’s Association, which was founded in 2022 by 26 Siekopai female artisans to promote Indigenous women’s participation and economic autonomy.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:00 am

‘The Epstein files won’t knock him out’: what Anthony Scaramucci learned in Trump’s inner circle

He lasted just 11 days as White House communications director, before being fired from the Trump administration. The financier and broadcaster discusses working for the president – and becoming his biggest critic

‘If somebody walks into your office and says they’re friends with Donald Trump, they’re either exaggerating the relationship, or they don’t understand the relationship,” says Anthony Scaramucci. “Because nobody is friends with Donald. You’re a transaction in this guy’s field of vision.”

Scaramucci should know. He has been non-friends with Trump for more than 30 years, though these days he’s more an outright enemy. Just as the attention-devouring president once stalked Hillary Clinton on the debate stage, Trump looms large in Scaramucci’s story. The two men seem to haunt each other. When we meet in London during a stopover in his hectic schedule, the conversation rarely drifts away from Trump for more than a few minutes. Conversely, the 62-year-old financier and broadcaster has become one of Trump’s most vocal and penetrating critics. “We fight like New Yorkers,” Scaramucci says. “He doesn’t really come back at me, because he knows I’m going to come back at him.” Unlike Trump’s presumptive friends, Scaramucci does understand Trump, he claims. “There’s something called ‘Trump derangement syndrome’; I think I have ‘Trump reality syndrome’. I know what he is, I know what he does, I know what he’s capable of and I know the danger of him.”

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:00 am

Maritime and port workers: how is the Middle East conflict affecting you?

With shipping routes disrupted and tensions rising across the region we want to hear from maritime workers, sailors and port workers and others working at sea who are affected

The conflict in the Middle East is disrupting shipping across the region, including in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest maritime routes.

Maritime traffic through the strait, the narrow channel linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, has effectively been closed since strikes on Iran began. Some vessels have been diverted or delayed and ports and shipping companies are dealing with heightened security concerns and uncertainty.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:08 pm

People in the US: share your views of the Iran conflict

Trump long promised to end ‘endless wars’, but the US has joined Israel in attacking Iran. We want to hear how people in the US are reacting

Hundreds of people thought to have died in Iran following the strikes by US and Israeli forces on Saturday with the numbers expected to rise. Six US service members have been killed since the conflict began on Saturday.

For the last decade Donald Trump has denounced US military intervention in other countries; back in December 2016 the then president elect said; “We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with.”

Published: March 3, 2026, 4:09 pm

Beam lifting, digital fashion and a bike race: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:57 pm