Off Duty: The Crime

On the evening of 29 December 2011, Officer Clifton Lewis was moonlighting as a security guard at a Chicago minimart when two men walked in. They shot Lewis several times, then took off with his gun and police star. A week later, police had their suspects: four men affiliated with a gang called the Spanish Cobras. For hours, under intense police questioning, they all said they didn’t do it. But that didn’t seem to matter.

This is episode one of Off Duty, an investigation by the Guardian’s Melissa Segura

Published: March 18, 2026, 10:30 am

Trump now calls war reporting ‘treason’. His attacks on the press are escalating fast | Margaret Sullivan

The US president is using the language and the strategy of authoritarians once again

There’s nothing completely new in Donald Trump’s latest attacks on reporters.

But they’re more extreme now and ever more indicative of what he wants: a docile press that provides propaganda – not factual journalism – for everything he does, including for his misguided war in Iran.

Published: March 18, 2026, 10:00 am

We asked experts about the most responsible ways to use AI tools – here’s what they said

Use AI as a brainstorming partner and organizer, but don’t outsource your judgment

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

Three years on from the release of ChatGPT, two broad camps have formed: those people who refuse to use it, and those who use it every day.

A 2025 survey by the Pew Research Center found that one-third of US adults say they have been using ChatGPT. This includes 58% of US adults under 30 – roughly double the share two years ago.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:00 am

March Madness 2026 men’s predictions: who will cut down the nets in Indianapolis?

Who are the players to watch? Which Cinderella team could break your bracket? Our contributors pick the winners, sleepers and upsets for this year’s men’s NCAA Tournament

The annual bevy of trivia that accompanies an NCAA Tournament. Have you heard there are two Miamis? Did you know Nebraska have never won a men’s tournament game? Are you aware that the Queens Royals have a “spirit animal” called Buddy the Street Dog? Even more importantly, I’m looking forward to watching enough basketball over the next three weeks to crack 68/68 on the Sporcle quiz of this year’s mascots. EB

Published: March 18, 2026, 9:00 am

‘They were comparing me to Bonnie Blue’: the disturbing rise of nightlife content

Footage of women walking between bars and clubs in UK city centres, often filmed covertly, is proliferating online – attracting thousands of views and profits for those who post them. Can anything be done to stop the creepshots?

‘My friend just sent me this video, told me she’d found me in it,” read the text. “As I was looking for myself, I noticed you’re in it too. I didn’t know I was being filmed, guess you don’t either, just wanted to let you know …”

When Nancy Naylor Hayes received the message in November 2023, she felt a twinge of fear. It was from an acquaintance she hadn’t heard from in years. “I was panicking,” she says. The text pointed her to a Facebook link, which led to a montage of clips of women filmed on the streets of Manchester during nights out.

Published: March 18, 2026, 10:00 am

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

Trillions of insects embark, largely unnoticed, on epic journeys every year across mountain ranges, deserts and seas, and it is only now, as their numbers suffer huge declines, that scientists are tracking their movements

On a cloudless sunny day in October 1950, ornithologists Elizabeth and David Lack stood on a mountain pass in the Pyrenees and observed a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle – clouds of migrating insects.

Up to 500 butterflies were fluttering past them every hour through the 2,200m-high Puerto de Bujaruelo mountain pass on the French-Spanish border. By mid-afternoon dragonflies were skimming through, outnumbering the butterflies by 10 to one. The spaces between were filled with thousands of tiny flies.

Published: March 18, 2026, 8:00 am

Middle East crisis live: Israel strikes central Beirut and claims to have killed Iran’s intelligence minister overnight

Israeli defence minister says Esmail Khatib has been killed after death of Larijani; Lebanese health ministry reporting 12 people have died on Wednesday

Iran is still exporting millions of barrels of oil, with about 90 ships, including oil tankers, having crossed the strait of Hormuz since the beginning of the war with Iran, according to maritime and trade data platforms reports.

This is despite Iran saying it had closed the vital waterway to vessels from the US and its allies.

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:23 pm

US spending on first week of Iran war raises stark questions about priorities

$11.3bn more than enough to fund EPA or National Cancer Institute, where administration sought to slash budgets

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The US spent $11.3bn on just the first week of its military assault on Iran. This huge expenditure dwarves the annual budgets of many of the public health and scientific agencies the Trump administration has sought to cut, raising stark questions about the country’s priorities.

In the six days that followed the US and Israel’s joint attack on Iran on 28 February, $11.3bn was spent on American taxpayer-funded bombs that hit the country and caused hundreds of deaths, the Pentagon has told lawmakers. This figure does not capture the full cost of the conflict, such as deployment of forces, and will now be far higher given the ongoing nature of the war.

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:00 pm

How ignorance, misunderstanding and obfuscation ended Iran nuclear talks

Negotiators had reached agreement on key issues despite Trump team’s idiosyncratic approach. Two days later, war began

In the many bizarre exchanges that occurred in the run-up to the US-Israeli attack on Iran, perhaps the most unexpected was an invitation by Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff for the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, to join him and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, for a visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.

The idea that Araghchi would leave talks in Oman about the future of Iran’s nuclear programme to tour a ship sent to the Gulf in an effort to dislodge his government seemed idiosyncratic at best.

Published: March 18, 2026, 5:00 am

US contractors stranded in Iraq under threat of imminent attack: ‘We are sitting ducks’

More than 200 Americans at Balad site say they have no evacuation plan as fears grow of a post-Ramadan assault

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Hundreds of US contractors are stranded on a major military base near Baghdad, Iraq, with no evacuation plan, while local Iran-backed militants are possibly making plans to attack the base, three sources said.

The contractors are employed on the Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih Air Base, formerly Balad Air Base, to support the Iraqi government’s F-16 fighter jet program.

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:19 pm

Fire damage, clogged toilets, and sinking morale: USS Gerald R Ford to set sail for repairs in Crete

Aircraft carrier has been participating in strikes on Iran, after previously taking part in the operation to seize Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro

A fire onboard the USS Gerald R Ford, injuring sailors and destroying 100 beds, is the latest mishap to plague the world’s largest aircraft carrier on a marathon deployment some argue has sapped crew morale.

At sea for almost nine months, and currently stationed in the Red Sea to support the war on Iran, the carrier will reportedly set sail for Crete for repairs.

Published: March 18, 2026, 7:20 am

RFK Jr met Republican diplomat days before controversial 2019 trip to Samoa, emails show

Records shed light on how Scott Brown – then Trump’s New Zealand ambassador, now running for Senate – responded to Kennedy’s 2019 Samoa trip ahead of measles outbreak

When Robert F Kennedy Jr ran for president as a Democrat in 2023, he found an unexpected ally in Scott Brown. A former Republican senator, Brown had begun a tradition of hosting Republican presidential candidates for barbecues in his New Hampshire back yard, where they could stump for votes and get attention ahead of the state’s crucial primary.

Kennedy became Brown’s first Democratic invitee. His appearance in September 2023 drew hundreds of people, Brown’s biggest crowd ever. Kennedy held Brown in such high regard that after he decided to run instead as an independent, he reportedly reached out to Brown as a possible vice-presidential running mate, though Brown declined.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump’s DHS pick, Markwayne Mullin, never served in military but talks as if he did

Oklahoma senator has repeatedly made cryptic claims about ‘overseas’ work and war experience, while refusing to explain them

Markwayne Mullin, the Oklahoma senator chosen by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Homeland Security who will be considered by the Senate on Wednesday, has never served in the US military, but he routinely speaks as if he did in interviews.

Two days after the US attacked Iran, for instance, Mullin told Fox News: “War is ugly. It smells bad. And if anybody has ever been there and been able to smell the war that’s happening around you and taste it, and feel it in your nostrils, and hear it, it’s something you’ll never forget. And it’s ugly.”

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:16 pm

Trump blames Democrats for partial DHS shutdown as Jeffries attempts to force vote on separate funding for affected agencies – live

Trump says ongoing shutdown is ‘causing chaos at the airports’; White House official confirmed Senate Democrats sent a counteroffer aimed at resolving the budget standoff

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The confirmation hearing for Markwayne Mullin, the president’s nominee to replace Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary is due to start any minute.

Lawmakers are gathered around the dais, and the committee’s chair, Republican senator Rand Paul is delivering his opening remarks.

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:35 pm

Juliana Stratton wins Illinois Democratic Senate primary race

The progressive candidate was behind Krishnamoorthi until she got an infusion of cash from Governor Pritzker

Illinois lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton won the Democratic primary race to succeed Illinois’ US senator Dick Durbin, beating out US representative Raja Krishnamoorthi.

With nearly 90% of the vote tallied, Stratton was leading Krishnamoorthi by more than six percentage points on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press.

Published: March 18, 2026, 2:44 am

Afghans search for loved ones at Kabul rehab centre hit by Pakistani airstrike

Afghan Taliban government says more than 400 people killed and 265 injured, as Pakistan disputes target of strike

Families and friends of people who were being treated at a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul have continued to search for their loved ones two days after it was bombed by Pakistan, in the deadliest attack so far in the months-long conflict between the two countries.

The Afghan Taliban government has said more than 400 people were killed and 265 others wounded in the airstrike, which took place on Monday night as people and staff at the centre were praying days before the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:53 am

New Orleans woman sues archdiocese over son’s suicide after he was expelled from school

Sara Brannon alleges high school overseen by the Roman Catholic archdiocese was negligent in treatment of her 17-year-old son

A suburban New Orleans woman whose teenaged son died by suicide hours after his Catholic school expelled him in the wake of what he termed a shoving match with a campus bully is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against the local archdiocese.

Sara Brannon contends that Rummel high school in Metairie, Louisiana, was negligent in its treatment of her son, 17-year-old Devon Shelton, and is therefore owed damages, including for mental anguish as well as physical pain and suffering.

In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Published: March 18, 2026, 10:00 am

Judge indicates he might shut down Trump’s $400m White House ballroom plan

‘I’m struggling to see this as an ‘alteration’,’ judge said amid lawsuit seeking to halt construction until president has won congressional approval

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A federal judge has slammed Donald Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing, and plan to build a $400m ballroom where it once stood, as “brazen”, and has indicated he might terminate the project later this month.

“I’m struggling to see this as an ‘alteration’,” Judge Richard Leon said Tuesday during a hearing in a lawsuit brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeking to halt construction until the president has won congressional approval and passed independent reviews.

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:30 pm

Instagram to remove end-to-end encryption for private messages in May

Meta’s announcement comes after years of criticism from child safety groups over feature

Instagram will stop encrypting private messages between users from May, after enduring years of criticism from law enforcement and child safety groups over the feature.

Meta quietly announced this month on its help page for Instagram and in an updated 2022 news post that end-to-end encryption would no longer be available on direct messages between users on Instagram from 8 May 2026.

Published: March 18, 2026, 3:52 am

Sean Penn receives ‘Oscar’ made from damaged Ukrainian rail carriage after Zelenskyy meeting

The actor skipped Academy Awards ceremony to travel to Ukraine, where he was presented with alternative prize

Sean Penn has been presented with an Oscar fashioned from the metal of a Ukrainian railway carriage damaged by Russian missiles.

The statue, which is flat, silver and shaped like an Academy Award, was given to him by Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, CEO of Ukrainian railways, who told him: “You’re missing Oscars, so we made this one.”

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:10 am

Jeffrey Epstein’s elite relationships visualised: the prince, the sultan and the politicians

Guardian analysis of more than a million emails reveals financier’s deep and longstanding ties with the wealthy and powerful

The release of the Epstein files has reverberated around the world, leading to at least nine resignations and investigations into high-profile figures, including the former UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, and the ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The deluge of information has made it hard to assess the extent of the connections but a Guardian data analysis reveals how frequent, deep and longstanding his ties were to a number of high-profile figures.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:00 am

When an off-duty police officer was murdered in Chicago, Alex Villa was arrested and sent to prison for 10 years. The problem? He almost certainly didn’t do it

The evidence against him and two fellow gang members didn’t stack up. But the police and prosecutors pressed on. How did the US justice system get it so wrong?

• Off Duty: The Crime – episode one

On the evening of 29 December 2011, off‑duty Chicago police officer Clifton Lewis sat behind the counter of the M&M Quick Foods convenience store, working a second job as a security guard. He’d proposed to his girlfriend on Christmas Day and the extra income from M&M would help pay for the wedding.

His fiance, Latrice Tucker, chafed at all his side jobs, which also included a security gig at Walmart. She had scheduled an appointment to tour a potential wedding venue that afternoon, but Lewis kissed her on the cheek and told her he was running late for work. They’d reschedule.

Published: March 18, 2026, 10:31 am

Florida professors quietly defy restrictions on race and gender: ‘This is how authoritarianism works’

Sociology faculty are refusing to alter syllabi, even as state targets how race, gender and inequality are taught

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Across Florida universities, some sociology professors are quietly choosing not to alter their courses in response to new state guidelines restricting how topics like race, gender and sexuality can be discussed. Rather than rewriting syllabi or removing foundational material, as the new demands would call for, they say they are continuing to teach their classes as designed. The professors view the preservation of their curricula not as an act of defiance, but as a professional responsibility to provide students with a full and rigorous education.

In late January, Florida’s department of education introduced what many professors are calling a censored sociology textbook for use in the state’s public colleges and universities, along with a list of proposed guidelines at state schools, restricting various discussions related to systemic discrimination, gender and sexual identity, race-conscious remedies, and the structural causes of inequality. Faculty members say this move reflects a broader effort to narrow academic freedom in higher education and follows several years of legislation aimed at reshaping public university curricula under the banner of combating “woke ideology”.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:00 am

Say gay: feminist magazine reclaims Charlie Kirk-style campus tours after Florida DEI cuts

Florida restricted teaching around sex, gender and race. Lux is now giving students a forum for these issues

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On a Tuesday night, at Florida’s only public liberal arts college, a small group of students gathered in a classroom to discuss issues deemed “controversial” on state campuses: transgender rights, feminism, immigration. But perhaps what they wanted to address most was how to combat despair.

“It’s important to stand and resist,” said Nya Jacobson, a New College of Florida senior. “But this place is a lost cause.”

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:00 pm

Inside the fiery, deadly crashes involving the Tesla Cybertruck

Cybertrucks have locked passengers inside and burned so hot they’ve disintegrated drivers’ bones. Victims’ families blame what they say is the faulty design of a truck Elon Musk calls ‘apocalypse-proof’

When sheriff deputies arrived at the scene of a late-night crash off a desolate Texas road in August 2024, they could see a giant pyre through heavy smoke.

According to police reports detailing the events of that night, the officers tried to approach the vehicle, but the fire burned too intensely. They saw it was a Tesla Cybertruck and couldn’t see anyone inside. So they combed the surrounding area for the driver.

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:00 pm

Canada wants to build up its long-neglected Arctic. The hard question is how

Ottawa wants to modernize a region in the north that’s about six times the size of Texas, ‘just like in the 1800s’

Picture an Arctic territory, marginalized by its own country, almost entirely lacking roads, ports and power sources, but rich in mining potential and suddenly feeling vulnerable to outside threats.

It’s not Greenland; it’s the Canadian Arctic.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:00 am

People in the US: how are you managing your money right now?

From higher fuel costs to stock market dips, households across the US are facing new pressures. We want to hear how you are adapting

Rising fuel prices, stock market volatility and global instability are creating new financial pressures for households across the US. Recent conflict in the Middle East has pushed diesel prices above $5 a gallon and driven wider concerns about inflation and a potential economic slowdown.

Higher transport and supply costs are also beginning to feed through into the price of everyday goods and services pushing up the cost of living.

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:42 pm

Imperfect Women review – lots of fun … if you lower your expectations enough

This glossy murder mystery, starring Elisabeth Moss, Kerry Washington and Kate Mara, should be better than this. But if you brace yourself for a perfectly acceptable eight hours of entertainment, you’ll have a good time

You can’t say Imperfect Women doesn’t warn you. It is clear from the very first shots – three women dancing, drunkenly but happily, laughing but not scream-laughing, as the camera whirls round their beautifully lit selves – and the first line – an earnest voiceover about “a kinship from deep in our souls” – what we’re in for. That is, an overwritten, far-fetched, glossy but derivative murder mystery – a descendant of Big Little Lies, intermarried with touches of everything else Nicole Kidman has done in the last 10 years.

Adjust your expectations accordingly and you’ll have a perfectly acceptable eight hours of entertainment. Dwell on the fact that you could well have expected better of an Apple TV production and a main cast that includes Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss and Kate Mara and you’ll have less of a good time. So don’t do that.

Published: March 18, 2026, 5:00 am

Caracas celebrates after Venezuela topple USA to win first World Baseball Classic – in pictures

Venezuela defeated the United States in a World Baseball Classic championship game fraught with political overtones, setting off celebrations throughout Caracas

• Venezuela edge USA to win first WBC title

Published: March 18, 2026, 4:05 am

A robust future? Why Brazil’s ‘bitter’ coffee is thriving as the climate crisis hits global crops

Long seen as the poor relation to arabica, small growers in the Amazon are rebooting the more resilient robusta’s reputation

• Read more in the Coffee crisis series here

When the Paiter Suruí community expelled the last invaders of their land in 1981, they faced a divisive decision. Should they keep the coffee plantations left by the colonisers? Some destroyed them because of the death and violence contact with the non-Indigenous world had caused. Others felt sorry for the trees and couldn’t kill them.

More than 40 years later, those estates that survived are being nurtured, supporting families and the environment. “Today, we use coffee as a way to preserve the forest,” says Celeste Paytxayeb Suruí, a famous Indigenous barista and coffee producer in Brazil. The award-winning fine coffee she prepares is called “Amazonian robusta”, and is produced in the Brazilian state of Rondônia in the western Amazon.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:00 am

Millions of Americans are about to lose access to birth control. Why? | Moira Donegan

Untold numbers will get sick as a result. Clinics are scrambling, and no one seems to be able to explain why this is happening

They’re calling it a funding cliff for sexual health in America. Pap smears and HIV tests will be cancelled. IUD appointments will have to be rebooked; condoms and birth control pills that used to be free will now come with a price tag. Maternal health outcomes will worsen, and STDs will spread. Some nurses, doctors, and other health clinic staff will be laid off, and clinic hours will be slashed. The long-term impacts for public health could be horrific.

On 31 March, millions of Americans may lose access to birth control and STD screening services provided by the Title X program, a $286m annual public health investment that provides sexual and reproductive care for Americans, mostly women, who are low-income or lack health insurance. More than 2 3 million people used the program in 2023; now, they are likely to be denied care – being forced to pay out-of-pocket for services that used to be free, or to make the decision to go without.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump needs to reject Netanyahu’s quest for a forever war | Kenneth Roth

Instead of regime change, all the bombing has produced so far is regime reinforcement and no end in sight

With the US-Israeli bombing of Iran now in its third week, its costs are mounting, its purpose is increasingly muddled and potential off-ramps have become frustratingly elusive. Yet rather than succumb to despair, we should urgently press for this destructive war to end.

Iran never engaged in an actual or imminent attack that would justify a war of self-defense. The best that Donald Trump could muster was an argument of prevention – that Iran’s missile program and capacity to disrupt the Middle East must be curtailed, along with its ability to build a nuclear weapon. But the UN charter does not permit armed attacks for mere preventive purposes; that would open the door to endless armed conflicts. And even by the standard of Trump’s inadequate justification for war, his bombing has been a fiasco.

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:00 pm

Who in Hillary Clinton’s team thought it would be a good idea to capitalise on the Jeffrey Epstein case? | Arwa Mahdawi

Tasteless political merch is nothing new to Donald Trump, but it’s a particularly bad look if you’re married to Bill Clinton

We live in a golden age of tasteless political merchandise. This is largely thanks to Donald Trump: over the years the president’s official store has flogged everything from hoodies with Joe Biden falling downstairs on them to a T-shirt with a version of the mugshot from his 2023 booking on felony charges (Trump denied wrongdoing).

Trump isn’t the only one. Back in 2019, Senator Mitch McConnell, then Senate majority leader, sold more than 2,000 T-shirts referencing “Cocaine Mitch”. This had nothing to do with his hobbies; it was in response to a nickname given to McConnell by a political rival off the back of a baseless allegation. “One of the things we learned with this whole ‘Cocaine Mitch’ phenomenon is that people are really engaged,” one of the staffers involved in the T-shirt sales said at the time. “They want merchandise.”

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:00 am

As Israel prepares to implement the ‘Gaza model’ in Lebanon, where is the international reaction? | Ben Reiff

A red-flag alert has been issued by one genocide-prevention organisation. This is not the time for empty condemnations but sanctions and arms embargos

Anyone following Israeli media discourse in recent days may be experiencing a severe case of deja vu. Alongside euphoric reactions to the US-Israeli pummelling of Iran (backed by 93% of the Jewish-Israeli population), politicians and prominent commentators are now clamouring for an escalation in Lebanon – hoping to see a repeat of the devastation Israel has wreaked in Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have already killed close to 1,000 people in the past two weeks, after Hezbollah resumed its rocket fire into northern Israel in support of Iran. The Israeli army has issued blanket evacuation orders covering a vast area in the country’s south, displacing over a million people from their homes. On Monday, it announced the launch of a “targeted” ground invasion, and officials have briefed the media that they are preparing to mobilise hundreds of thousands of reservists in order to implement “the Gaza model, but in Lebanon”.

Ben Reiff is deputy editor at +972 magazine

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 18, 2026, 9:00 am

Trump is being schooled on the limits of US power – but he is a slow learner | Rafael Behr

Last year it was China’s answer to tariffs, now it’s Iran’s retaliation to airstrikes – ‘America First’ keeps foundering on global economics

Donald Trump is teaching the world a lesson, but not the one he thinks. The attack on Iran was meant to be a dazzling display of military supremacy. It has instead illuminated chinks in the US’s armour.

The US president’s formidable arsenal cannot summon up an insurrection from Iran’s tyrannised and leaderless opposition. It cannot force merchant ships to run a gauntlet of missile and drone attacks in the strait of Hormuz. The government in Tehran and the facts of geography that give it leverage over global trade are unchanged. Trump’s exasperation is showing. He urges tanker crews to “show some guts” by sailing into harm’s way. He calls on Nato members to provide naval chaperones and accuses them of cowardice and ingratitude for refusing. He comes across as peevish and flustered. Impotence is not a good look in a potentate.

Published: March 18, 2026, 7:00 am

Venezuela win first World Baseball Classic title after taming USA in politically fraught final

• Suárez double seals Venezuela’s first WBC title

• Harper HR ties it, but USA fall short in ninth

• Caracas celebrates as Venezuela win – in pictures

Venezuela defeated the United States 3-2 on Tuesday night to win their first World Baseball Classic title, a landmark triumph in a politically charged final that resonated far beyond the diamond.

Eugenio Suárez drove in the winning run in the top of the ninth inning to seal a dramatic victory for the South American side at Miami’s LoanDepot Park.

Published: March 18, 2026, 3:21 am

Some WNBA players set to make more than $1m a year after new CBA agreed in principle

• Union and league reach verbal agreement on new deal

• Salaries expected to match rocketing revenue

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The WNBA and its players’ union reached an agreement in principle on a new collective bargaining agreement early Wednesday morning.

Specifics still need to be finalized over the next few weeks as lawyers on both sides work on the new deal. A term sheet should be completed in the next day or two. It will then need to be ratified by the players and then approved by the league’s Board of Governors.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:27 am

Decision to strip Senegal of Afcon title has left me gobsmacked – and others in Africa furious

The ruling of the Caf appeals committee is against the laws of the game and casts another shadow over Motsepe’s stewardship as president

In more than three decades of reporting on African football, I have gone through the entire gamut of emotions: exhilaration – over some of the continent’s great moments at the Africa Cups of Nations and World Cups; frustration – over the errors its governors make – and deep despair, as one wonders whether its custodians will ever live up to their responsibilities and do their jobs diligently.

The decision on Tuesday, by the appeals committee of the Confederation of African Football (Caf), to strip Senegal of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) title and hand it to Morocco, leaves me gobsmacked, as it did a former member of the appeals committee. “As a person who was on the appeals board for six years I know that it does not have the power to change the on-field decision of a referee. I cannot understand how they came to this disgraceful decision,” he said.

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:28 pm

Are unbeaten superteams like the UConn Huskies bad for basketball?

Fans love watching an underdog cause an upset. The problem is that unbeaten teams are unbeaten for a reason

A classic narrative, dating back to the classic matchup of David v Goliath, is the underdog v the favorite.

The only problem is that the underdog is an underdog for the reason. Sure, everyone loves it when a David wins, but Goliath usually swats him away with predictable ease and then pounds him into the dirt. Which leads to a problem: who, other than devoted fans of the team in question, roots for the perennial champions? Isn’t that a bit like watching Hoosiers and rooting for the big kids to beat Gene Hackman’s scrappy underdogs? Or watching Rocky IV and rooting for Drago?

Published: March 18, 2026, 10:00 am

LinkedIn Liam and Chelsea run out of excuses to explain away PSG humbling | Jonathan Wilson

The mood already appears to be turning against the earnest coach with the fashionable glasses and box-fresh trainers

The temptation is always to make excuses for Chelsea. They have a young and inexperienced side. They have lots of injuries. They’ve accidentally appointed a smart young entrepreneur as head coach. They actually played pretty well for part of the first leg. And then you remember they’ve spent £1.5bn to get to this point – and that from a position of strength an inquiry has concluded they achieved by illicit means.

The Premier League may have been lenient in its judgment, but pundits should not be. Chelsea were outclassed to an embarrassing degree. It was never going to be easy to overturn a 5-2 first-leg deficit, but 8-2 on aggregate is a humiliation. It wasn’t just the margin of victory, though; it was the sense that, after going 2-0 up inside 15 minutes, Paris Saint-Germain could essentially have scored whenever they felt like it. This was a Chelsea performance devoid not only of spark but of structure.

Published: March 17, 2026, 10:51 pm

Howard hold off UMBC in First Four for school’s first ever March Madness win

• Harris lifts Howard to first NCAA win in history

• UMBC rally falls short in tense First Four loss

• Mark buzzer-beater sends Texas past NC State

Bryce Harris had 19 points and 14 rebounds, and he sank a turnaround jumper with 13 seconds remaining that sent Howard to its first NCAA Tournament victory in program history, 86-83 over UMBC in the First Four on Tuesday night.

Ose Okojie scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Bison (24-10), who entered with an 0-4 record in March Madness and had to hold off a late rally by the Retrievers (24-9).

Published: March 18, 2026, 6:19 am

Liverpool may end up getting rid of Slot purely because they cannot think of what else to do | Jonathan Liew

The head coach is not responsible for many of the problems at Anfield but he is the most obvious target for those seeking reasons for the team’s decline

It was the coffee bar at the training ground, installed by the Fenway Sports Group’s chief executive, Michael Edwards, after he got the idea from visiting Roma. It was Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, added to the post-match playlist by Alisson and which could be heard booming out of the Liverpool dressing room after victories. It was the video analysis. It was the data. It was the pre-season fitness tests. It was the close collaboration between the football and sports science departments. It was everything that changed from the Jürgen Klopp era. It was everything that stayed the same from the Jürgen Klopp era.

Victory brings a dazzling clarity. Particularly a victory as resounding as Liverpool’s unexpected 10-point romp to the Premier League title last season. It turns the cogs, powers the houses, confers a sunlit aura of genius on everyone involved. So with a certain uncharitable hindsight, it is instructive to go back to late April 2025 and read about how everyone thought Liverpool had done it. And why everyone – wrongly – thought they were going to do it again.

Published: March 18, 2026, 8:00 am

Sabalenka may avoid championships in Dubai after ‘ridiculous’ comment

• Director says stronger penalties needed for withdrawals

• Jack Draper continues comeback at Miami Open

Aryna Sabalenka says she may never return to compete at the Dubai Tennis Championships after she and Iga Swiatek were harshly criticised by the tournament director for their withdrawals from the tournament last month.

“It’s ridiculous,” Sabalenka said before the Miami Open. “I don’t think he showed himself in the best way possible. For me it’s actually so sad to see that the tournament directors and the tournaments are not protecting us as a player. They just care about their sellings, about their tournament and that’s it. His comment was ridiculous. I’m not sure if I ever want to go there after his comment. For me it’s too much.”

Published: March 17, 2026, 8:35 pm

Mamdani team moves to stop New York from representing Eric Adams in assault suit

City lawyers say former mayor is not entitled to public-funded defense over alleged 1993 sexual assault

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New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration wants to stop representing Eric Adams in a lawsuit that alleges the former mayor sexually assaulted a woman more than three decades ago, according to a court filing on Tuesday.

The move comes just a few months after Mamdani took office, following a bitter campaign season last year that had the two Democrats taking turns bashing each other in often caustic and personal terms.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:53 am

Canadian man who hiked in woods in defiance of ban has case heard in court

Jeffrey Evely, who documented hike on YouTube, says ban in Nova Scotia last summer to help prevent wildfires was unconstitutional

A Canadian man who intentionally violated a provincial ban on walking in the woods in order to launch a constitutional challenge on the restriction is having his case heard by the province’s supreme court this week.

Jeffrey Evely, a Canadian army veteran who lives in the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia, said that he took a daily hike in the woods in order to manage symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder he had developed as a soldier, court briefings show.

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:34 pm

Is this the world’s first quantum battery? Australian scientists say so

Researchers say their prototype is a big step towards fully functioning batteries with rapid charging times

Australian scientists have developed what they say is the world’s first proof-of-concept quantum battery.

Quantum batteries, first proposed as a theoretical concept in 2013, use the principles of quantum mechanics to store energy, and have the potential to be more efficient than conventional batteries.

Published: March 18, 2026, 7:29 am

Fuel rations and no air con: south-east Asian nations race to conserve energy

Governments in countries heavily reliant on Middle Eastern oil introduce measures to shield public from soaring costs

• Middle East crisis – live updates

In Thailand, news anchors ditched their jackets on air as the government called on the public to reduce their use of air conditioning to save energy. In the Philippines, many government workers are now operating on a four-day week. In Vietnam, officials have urged employers to allow staff to work from home.

Across south-east Asia, governments are scrambling to find ways to conserve energy and shield the public from soaring costs as war in the Middle East causes what the International Energy Agency has described as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.

Published: March 18, 2026, 9:28 am

Pam Bondi subpoenaed over Epstein files release by House committee

Lawmakers on both sides of aisle have criticized justice department’s improper redaction of information

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Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, has been formally subpoenaed to appear before a House panel to answer questions about the justice department’s handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and its release of the Epstein files.

The move came amid growing criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle over the justice department’s compliance with a law passed last year requiring the full release of Epstein-related files.

Published: March 17, 2026, 8:53 pm

Sky considers ending controversial UAE news joint venture

Sky News Arabia has been accused of broadcasting propaganda and whitewashing genocide in Sudan

Sky is considering terminating its joint venture with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after accusations it is involved in broadcasting propaganda and genocide denial.

Sky is in talks with its partner in the UAE on Sky News Arabia over the potential termination next year of the licence to use its brand.

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:16 pm

US rapper Mystikal pleads guilty to third-degree rape in 2022 arrest

Musician, AKA Michael Tyler, faces up to 20 years after entering plea in state court outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The US rapper Mystikal on Tuesday pleaded guilty to third-degree rape in connection with a case that led to his arrest in 2022.

Mystikal – whose given name is Michael Tyler – faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in a state courthouse outside Baton Rouge, Louisiana, according to reports from local news outlets WBRZ and WAFB.

Published: March 17, 2026, 10:23 pm

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

Progressive and green groups join call for tax on major fossil-fuel companies to help offset rising living costs

With big oil companies poised to reap billions of dollars in profits from the war in Iran, Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups are calling for a windfall tax on major fossil fuel companies.

The US-Israeli strikes on Iran have triggered the largest ever disruption to fuel supply, according to the International Energy Agency, sending crude costs surging over $100 per barrel in recent days. Those high prices have hit US pocketbooks, with average domestic gas prices topping $3.70 a gallon, and Americans spending more than an additional $2bn to fill their tanks in the past fortnight according to one estimate.

Published: March 17, 2026, 8:24 pm

Oil flows again through controversial California pipeline after Trump order

Pipeline, closed since 2015 after huge oil spill, reopens after president cites need to boost US supply amid war on Iran

Oil has begun to flow from a controversial California pipeline system for the first time in more than a decade following a Trump administration order, despite state officials decrying the move.

Sable Offshore Corporation, the Houston-based owner of the coastal pipelines, announced on Monday that offshore oil was now flowing through its Santa Ynez unit and Santa Ynez pipeline system, which runs through several California counties.

Published: March 17, 2026, 7:27 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

Kid Rock decries settlement reached between Live Nation and Trump’s justice department

Close ally of president was set to testify at antitrust trial of Ticketmaster parent company later this month

Kid Rock thinks it’s bawita-bad that the US Department of Justice reached a shocking settlement with Live Nation one week into its antitrust trial.

A close ally of Donald Trump, the rightwing rocker expressed bewilderment over the settlement, telling former Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman that he was shocked by the news.

Published: March 17, 2026, 10:02 pm

US postal service will run out of money by February 2027, says agency chief

Postmaster general David Steiner has called for change to federal law that caps USPS’s borrowing at $15bn

The US Postal Service will run out of funds within a year, unless lawmakers lift a cap on how much money the agency can borrow, according to the postmaster general.

In an interview with the Associated Press, David Steiner warned that the postal service – which relies on stamps and service fees rather than tax dollars to deliver mail six days a week to every address in the country – would run out of cash for employees and vendors by February next year.

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:07 am

Meteor over Ohio causes large boom heard as far away as Pennsylvania

Nasa spokesperson says meteor was traveling at 45,000mph but no reports of debris found

A meteor over Ohio caused a large boom that jolted people as far away as Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning, Nasa has confirmed.

The meteor entered the atmosphere at about 9am local time on Tuesday, producing a sonic boom felt across a wide swath of northern Ohio and beyond. Reports poured in from Cleveland and other sectors as far east as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and into New York state.

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:38 am

Chief justice John Roberts calls for end to ‘dangerous’ hostility toward judges

Roberts did not name Donald Trump, but US president has decried ‘corrupt judges’ who ruled against him

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The chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, said on Tuesday that hostility directed in personal terms at judges is “dangerous, and it’s got to stop”.

The comment came just days after Donald Trump’s latest social media broadside against judges who have ruled against him and his administration.

Published: March 17, 2026, 9:09 pm

Subnautica 2 publisher’s CEO used ChatGPT in failed bid to avoid paying US$250m bonus to own studio head, court hears

Court orders Krafton’s CEO to reinstate Unknown Worlds’ leadership after they were ousted using an AI-generated plan

A South Korean gaming publisher who hatched a plan using ChatGPT to remove the heads of one of its own game studios in a bid to avoid paying US$250m has been ordered by a US court to reverse the removal.

The dispute stems from South Korean game developer Krafton’s acquisition of Unknown Worlds Entertainment, makers of the Subnautica video game, for $500m in 2021.

Published: March 18, 2026, 2:01 am

Millions of children dying from preventable causes, report reveals

Premature birth, pneumonia and malaria among leading causes of death in under-fives worldwide, as UN experts warn aid cuts are slowing progress on survival rates

Most of the 4.9 million children who died in 2024 could have been saved, according to a new UN report that warns aid cuts could thwart the global goal of ending preventable child deaths.

Progress towards ending the preventable deaths of children under five by 2030 has slowed 60% since 2015, the report found, leading to UN experts to call for sustained investment in health systems to reach the target.

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:01 am

Colombian president accuses Ecuador after ‘27 charred bodies’ found near border

Relations deteriorate as Gustavo Petro claims government of Trump ally Daniel Noboa bombing targets in Colombia

President Gustavo Petro has accused Ecuador of bombing targets inside Colombian territory, saying later that the burned remains of nearly 30 people had been found near the border, in a sharp deterioration in relations between the two neighbouring countries.

The Colombian leader said on Tuesday that an attack which had left “27 charred bodies” did not appear to have been carried out by Colombia’s own forces or any illegal armed groups which he said do not have armed planes.

Published: March 17, 2026, 6:51 pm

‘We built a castle on stage complete with battlements’: how 80s German thrash bands pushed metal to new extremes

As Metallica et al broke through, Kreator, Sodom and Destruction were forging an even harder sound. They recall gigs in coalmines, sessions in steelworks – and boozing with Slayer

The noise might have been building since the early 80s, but 1986 was the year thrash metal broke – bursting like a zit on a teenage metalhead’s bumfluffed chin. Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica all released landmark albums, with the latter swapping fleapit rock clubs for a string of arena dates supporting Ozzy Osbourne. But while these California acts would alter the course of rock music for ever, a clutch of like-minded teenagers were carving their own path 5,500 miles away from the genre’s epicentre.

What Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and Tankard – the “big four” of German thrash metal – might have lacked in finesse and professional outlook, they made up for in sheer unbridled aggression. Faster and meaner than most of their American peers, these bands helped to set a new benchmark for brutality while unwittingly influencing the next generation of death- and black-metal musicians.

Published: March 18, 2026, 11:30 am

Banksy has been unmasked (again). But does this major Reuters investigation actually tell us something new?

British street artist’s ‘real’ name reported after an investigation stretching from Ukraine to New York and London. Kelly Burke explains all to Nick Miller

Hi Kelly, everyone is talking about Banksy (again) – what’s he done this time?

Hi Nick. So a really long (8,000-word) investigation by Reuters claims it has discovered the elusive street artist’s true identity, which backs up claims made by the Mail on Sunday British tabloid almost two decades ago that he is a 52-year-old Bristol-born man called Robin Gunningham, now going by the name of David Jones.

Published: March 18, 2026, 2:36 am

War, inheritance and … a baby? First Dune: Part Three trailer is here

The final instalment in Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy brings back Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Florence Pugh and introduces a nasty new villain

Timothée Chalamet may have finally escaped Oscar season, but not movie promotion – the first look at Dune: Part Three is here.

The first trailer released for the final installment in Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy sees further war and political upheaval in the galaxy beyond Arrakis – plus a possible future child for Chalamet’s Paul Atreides and Chani, the Fremen warrior played by Zendaya. “If we have a girl, what should be name her?” Chani asks, suggesting the two have reconciled since the end of Part Two.

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:04 pm

Daggers Inn review – so-bad-it’s-almost-good fright-flick could achieve cult status

A spooky character investigates her sister’s killing in a sinister village in a film that reaches The Room’s levels of amateurishness

In a beautiful yet sinister village, a mysterious woman with spooky powers shows up to investigate her sister’s death. This perturbs the local business community, who are responsible for the killing, having hired an assassin called Shark to do the deed. He is not called Shark because he can smell blood, but because he can smell fear. He reveals this, then walks off, cackling. It’s that kind of film.

Daggers Inn is muddled, but landmark cinema in certain respects. Finally, the UK has a film to rival the 2003 US indie The Room, which still plays to packed houses, with audiences eternally thrilled by its hilarious creative choices and uneven performances. Daggers Inn is similarly ripe, not in the calculatedly trashy manner of a Sharknado film, but in the sense of amateurs’ original, sincere but almost entirely unsuccessful efforts.

Published: March 17, 2026, 7:00 am

Why we fell in love with Love Story: JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette

Ryan Murphy’s series about the Kennedy heir and style icon has risen above nostalgia-bait to become a ratings blockbuster

On a recent sunny Sunday in New York, Love Story seemed to be everywhere. Fans lined up around the block for tables at Panna II, the twinkly string-lit Indian restaurant where Ryan Murphy’s megahit charmingly – and if we’re being picky, inaccurately – sets John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette’s first date. Across town was a JFK Jr lookalike contest, which was rudely organized in Washington Square Park and not in my bedroom. Young women downtown wore hip-hugging pants and clean-girl makeup, and outside a repertory cinema everyone was smoking as though Parliaments were still $2 a pack.

Ryan Murphy’s swoony reimagining of JFK Jr and Bessette’s romance has been a sensation, with Love Story: John F Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette racking up 40m viewing hours to become FX’s most-watched limited series on Hulu/Disney+ to date. But it has struck a deeper chord in culture too, with legions of fans eating up the couple’s fashion and insouciant swagger, often wanting to try it on for size. Nearly 300,000 TikTok and Instagram posts are tagged #CBK, mainly videos focusing on Bessette’s sleek style, while brands jostle to cash in on what Puck calls the Bessette “halo effect”. While working on this piece, I received a J Crew newsletter titled “A 90s minimalism love story” with links to Bessette wardrobe dupes like a “Carolyn crewneck” and tortoiseshell headband.

Published: March 17, 2026, 9:04 am

New York hip-hop experimentalist Elucid: ‘I like the harmony of the city. Everybody’s got a little solo’

From a pocket of Zen in the Dream House installation, the rapper/producer talks about channelling the city’s perpetual din, whether solo or with Billy Woods as Armand Hammer

Seated opposite me in the Dream House, New York rapper and producer Elucid leans against the wall, crosses his ankles and shuts his eyes. Perfumed by incense, the long-running installation in a Manhattan loft, from composer La Monte Young and artist Marian Zazeela, is an otherworldly experience: a fridge-sized speaker cabinet occupies each corner, and pink and purple stage lights illuminate curly mobiles hanging from the ceiling. Violet-tinted film covers the three west-facing windows, making it hard to tell what time it is, or if time is passing at all. Each speaker plays distinct parts of a long drone composition; the emphasis shifts as you tilt your head or move through the space. Eventually, Elucid gets up and slowly walks around, finding a spot to lie down and let it all wash over him.

An hour later, as we sip cocktails in a nearby bar, he tells me that he drifted off a bit. This was his first visit to the Dream House in at least a decade, but his years of frequenting floatation tanks – at least once a season, always after coming home from tour – had him primed for the installation’s meditative properties. “It takes a minute to get into another space, but I definitely got there,” he says. As he settled into the cascading tone, his eyes closed, words like “engine room” and “turbine” came to mind, unconsciously mirroring his songwriting process. “Rappers always be like, ‘The beat tells me what to do,’” he says, and he is no different. “Sound has colour, emotion and force, and everyone who hears the same sound interprets it differently. I’ve developed a sound vocabulary, and oftentimes words pop in. Sometimes it’s a whole sentence.”

Published: March 17, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘People say: be quiet and make your music’: avant-pop star Mary Ocher on her vociferous politics – and leaving Israel behind

Born in Russia and raised in Israel, Ocher rejected the IDF draft for a life in Germany. As she releases an album inspired by the Weimar period, she discusses nationalism, AI and the future of humanity

‘When I moved to Berlin 19 years ago, it felt like some kind of revival of the Weimar period,” says Mary Ocher, referring to the cultural glory days of pre-Nazi Germany. But then she saw “the tail end of this beautiful period. Now in Germany, they try to deport EU citizens who participated in pro-Palestine protests. From where I am, it’s pretty scary.” To Ocher, it was the right time to call her new album Weimar, to draw parallels between the rise of fascism in the 1930s and our own era, tied to her experiences as an immigrant artist in Berlin.

Ocher has never seen making political work as a choice. Born in Moscow to Jewish-Ukrainian parents, she is an Israeli citizen who grew up in Tel Aviv, where she was exposed to intense nationalism that appalled her. “I hated everything around me,” the 39-year-old says of her teenage years in Israel. “There was no accountability, no possibility to change anything. I could see that people who migrated to Israel wanted to integrate and to become part of that society, which means not criticising it, and actively joining the mainstream that is preaching hate.”

Published: March 17, 2026, 11:52 am

Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave review – a will-they-won’t-they queer romance

Two women fall into and out of each other’s lives over decades, in a moving examination of love and choices

Given that novels are routinely touted as the new version of some previous chartbuster, Almost Life will doubtless be heralded as One Day meets Normal People for a sexually fluid generation. Featuring romantic indecisions spanning many years and an unironic take on the youthful psyche, it already reads as familiar.

The novel opens in Paris in 1978 with a moment of affinity on the steps of Sacré-Coeur when students Laure Boutin and Erica Parker first glimpse each other, and then teases the reader with more than 400 pages of will-they-won’t-they misunderstandings, ecstasies and sorrows. This is a tale of missed chances, of the choices we make, and of queer and bisexual love in different social climates.

Published: March 18, 2026, 9:00 am

When the Forest Breathes by Suzanne Simard review – the Indiana Jones of trees returns

The author of Finding the Mother Tree is back with an inspiring call to the next generation of ecologists

It’s 2021, and Suzanne Simard is in a police vehicle, being escorted off a protest site in Fairy Creek on Vancouver Island, where activists are locked in a standoff with the Teal-Jones Group, an industrial logging company. She decides to give the apprehending officer a piece of her mind – in the way only an earnest Canadian forestry ecologist can. “It takes decades for clearcut forests to stop emitting more carbon than they sequester, and centuries more to recover the sink strength of the original stands,” she tells him. “We don’t have decades for these forests to recover from clearcutting. In the hundreds of years it takes for a forest to mature, our planet could warm upwards of five degrees celsius.”

The officer is unmoved. But if you were responsible for one of the nearly 6m views tallied on Simard’s 2016 TED talk, you’ll know it was worth a try: few people can speak about trees with quite as much conviction as Simard. One part Indiana Jones, one part Mister Rogers, she is a Canadian national treasure and global environmental icon. When she’s not getting taken away from protests by the authorities, she’s dodging the flames of forest fires in the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia, exploring the Haida Gwaii archipelago (“Canada’s Galapagos”), or off learning Indigenous practices in the Amazon. In her TED talk, she describes once sprinting through the forest with a syringe filled with radioactive isotopes in each hand as she is chased by a grizzly bear.

Published: March 18, 2026, 7:00 am

The Delusions by Jenni Fagan review – an afterlife of queues and bureaucracy

A witty metaphysical satire about what happens when the processes that help souls pass on begin to fail

Jenni Fagan’s satirical fifth novel, The Delusions, opens with an epigraph from the Kurt Vonnegut-inspired science fiction curiosity Venus on the Half-Shell by Philip José Farmer. “The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.” The afterthought leaks back into the original statement, underpinning and undermining everything.

Infinity and eternity are both unavoidably present in The Delusions, which takes place in a vast anteroom to the afterlife, “the largest soul terminus in existence”. It’s the metaphysical equivalent of a big-box store, where they help you sort your false perceptions of yourself from what you actually were, before you’re Processed and sent on to whatever comes next (or, should you fail the Questionnaire, Dissolved on the spot). Though to be honest, no one in Processing is certain what that next thing is.

Published: March 17, 2026, 7:00 am

Solidarity by Rowan Williams review – what does it really mean to stand by someone?

The former archbishop delves deep into a word that is easy to use on social media, but hard to follow through on

You don’t need to scroll far down a social media feed to find someone expressing “solidarity” for the victims of cruelty or injustice. A show of solidarity feels more emphatic than expressing support or sympathy. As Rowan Williams argues, it can act as “a moral intensifier”, positioning us squarely alongside the victim. It can also be a declaration of innocence, a way of distancing ourselves definitively from the perpetrators and their guilt.

Williams wants to move us beyond this idea of solidarity as unequivocal identification. He has some sharp things to say about “empathy” as a modern solve-all, when it too often serves the needs of “a clamorous self” that “cannot bear the idea of a real stranger”. True solidarity, he argues, is less a virtue to be cultivated than a human condition to be acknowledged. It requires us to accept two stubborn truths: first, that we can never identify completely with someone else, because we are inescapably separate from them in mind and body; and second, that we are innately social beings, linked to each other by invisible threads of obligation and reciprocity.

Published: March 17, 2026, 9:00 am

Mythmatch review – a match-three game made in heaven

Team Artichoke; PC/Mac
Ancient Greek gods, adorable raccoons and hypnotic puzzling from Olympus to the mortal realm and back

There’s been a trend for a while where familiar puzzle game genres are imbued with novel stories to give them depth and meaning beyond simply clearing a screen for points. Occult object sorter Strange Horticulture and historical romance card game Regency Solitaire are lovely examples, and now here’s Mythmatch, a match-three game in the style of Candy Crush or Bejeweled that’s also a warming tale of friendship and community set in a small town in ancient Greece. Interspersed with cerebral challenges are dialogue scenes with villagers and with gods which accentuate each other and give little clues that are picked up later, making this both puzzle game and communal oral drama.

You play as Artemis, the immortal daughter of Zeus, who is tired of getting overlooked for plum jobs in favour of her oafish brother Apollo (brilliantly portrayed as an insufferable proto-tech bro). When the role of God of the Hunt comes up, she applies, but finds she must first earn favour with a council of her elders on Mount Olympus, and they all have puzzle-based jobs for her. Hephaestus wants her to help make arrows and hammers in his foundry, while Apollo needs her to protect his collection of chimp soft toys (a not-so-subtle dig at NFTs). These mini-tasks take the form of match-three puzzles, though cleverly they also bring in elements of other puzzle games such as Plants vs Zombies and Overcooked.

Published: March 17, 2026, 12:30 pm

Love & Fury: how poster artists responded to the Aids crisis – in pictures

A new exhibition explores how graphic design helped define New York City’s response to Aids from the late 1970s to the 2000s. Grassroots groups such as Gay Men’s Health Crisis and Act Up created posters to promote safe sex and healthcare, as well as calling out the Reagan administration for inaction in the face of the crisis. Love & Fury: New York’s Fight Against AIDS is on display until 6 September.

Published: March 18, 2026, 9:04 am

‘It’s going to upset the balance’: how will Paramount buying Warner Bros change Hollywood?

Warner Bros might have swept the Oscars with Sinners and One Battle After Another, but the impending merger has those in the industry worried about the future

On Sunday, Warner Bros snared 11 Oscars for One Battle After Another, Sinners and Weapons, equalling the record for most wins for a single film studio. Paramount, by contrast, did not earn a single nomination.

Yet in an apparent case of a minnow swallowing a whale, Paramount is poised to gobble up Warner Bros in a deal worth $111bn. If approved by regulators, the two studios would be consolidated into one, redrawing the Hollywood map and sowing uncertainty for actors, directors and writers as well as millions of viewers.

Published: March 17, 2026, 2:41 pm

Oscars Academy ‘extremely upset’ by Teyana Taylor’s treatment by ‘very rude’ security guard

The response follows social media footage of the One Battle After Another actor remonstrating with a member of security during the ceremony

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has responded to the complaint by Oscar nominee Teyana Taylor over the behaviour of a security guard who manhandled her in the closing moments of the ceremony.

In footage that circulated on social media after the telecast on Sunday, Taylor can be heard telling someone off-camera that they are “a man putting your hands on a female. You’re very rude. Very rude.”

Published: March 17, 2026, 2:03 pm

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

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

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

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

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

‘The way the world is, something daft is appealing’ – why everything from pizzas to podcasts has a cartoon character on it

So-called rubber hose style is putting a smile on everyday products, even as some designers plead that it’s time to ‘stop putting arms and legs on everything’. What’s behind the ubiquity of this wholesome branding?

A bagel embodied as a human, with unexpected little arms and a sweet face. A sandwich giving the peace sign. A leather jacket-wearing fish brandishing a spatula. A chess board on the march. A rugby ball making a dash for it. A smiling pizza, tongue dangling, clambering from a box.

Perhaps you have seen such a character. Chiefly in the branding – and merch – of an independent pizza place or sandwich shop, in a natural wine bar or brew pub. Though its loose limbs now stretch far and wide; to podcasts, internet talk shows and even global fashion labels.

Published: March 18, 2026, 8:00 am

‘Strong evidence’ of lowered dementia risk: the benefits of shingles vaccination

A growing body of evidence suggests the vaccine may also lower risk of stroke and heart attack

One in three people in the US get shingles. Despite this, US vaccination rates remain low – about 35% of adults over 60, consistent with overall vaccination trends.

“We have a vaccine that works really well,” says Dr Andrew Wallach, ambulatory care chief medical officer at NYC Health + Hospitals. “But there is a lot of what I call vaccine fatigue right now.”

Published: March 17, 2026, 4:00 pm

Move over, Guinness. Try these six Irish beers – also sold in the US

Guinness is great – but here are more top-notch Irish beers Americans should also know about, from a citrusy golden ale to a coffee-like stout

• The 12 best nonalcoholic beers and 13 best nonalcoholic wines in the US

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Every 17 March, our de facto beer is Guinness Draught, the classic stout pulled in a “two-part” pour to achieve its signature creamy head. About 13m pints of the “black stuff”, as it’s sometimes called, are sold worldwide on St Patrick’s Day alone. That’s an 819% increase over a usual day.

However, plenty of other Irish beers – not to mention lots of styles other than stouts – are worth enjoying out there. Irish brewing tradition goes back at least 5,000 years, and while the country’s brewing scene thrived in the early 1800s (around 200 breweries), about 70 breweries still operate across Ireland now, a recent report says.

The famous red ale:
Smithwick’s Irish Ale

A coffee-like stout:
O’Hara’s Irish Stout

Published: March 17, 2026, 12:15 pm

How to turn puff pastry offcuts into a brilliant cheesy snack – recipe | Waste not

Surely the zero-waste treat par excellence – even one trimming, with your choice of filling, can cook alongside your main bake for a moreish treat

After testing puff pastry for the Filter a few weeks ago, I had loads of trimmings left over, which reminded me of one of my favourite zero-waste recipes. Malfatti are biscuits made from pastry offcuts, which are seasoned, rolled in seeds and spices, baked and served with cheese. Determined to create something new with all my excess puff, I realised that it would be perfect for making misshapen cheese straws. Even if you have only a few offcuts, I implore you to top them with cheese and some sauerkraut or kimchi, then twist and bake alongside a tart or pie. They’re a brilliant little cheeky snack.

Published: March 18, 2026, 1:00 pm

Tips for downsizing recipes | Kitchen aide

It’s not simply a case of dividing the ingredients list by the number of servings, our experts agree, but it is more often than not about common sense

Any tips for downsizing recipes to serve one? Dividing by the number of servings doesn’t always work.
Melanie, by email
“It’s often just common sense,” says Kitty Coles, author of Make More With Less, plus a little maths – though, as Melanie so wisely points out, you can’t always simply divide the ingredients and be done with it.

First, you need to consider your cookware: “It’s really worth investing in smaller pans and a smaller skillet,” says Alexina Anatole, who is behind the Small Wins Substack. A tiny amount of liquid in a large pan, say, will get too much exposure to heat, so it’s very likely you’ll under- or overcook its contents. As Shelina Permalloo, author of What to Cook When Everyone’s Hungry, says, “The absorption method for rice is a nightmare if you’re using a wrong-sized pan.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Published: March 17, 2026, 1:00 pm

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

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

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

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

I help people with psychosis off the streets. Sometimes, their minds won’t let them leave

As a mental health chaplain in New York, I help people leave homelessness. But mental illness, bureaucracy and a fragile system often pull them back

Published: March 17, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Almost human’: life-size replicas of the dead help mend broken hearts in India

The silicone figures are a touching version of what the Hindi language calls ‘smaran’, or remembrance

In the north of Kolkata, near Dum Dum Junction, Subimal Das and his staff of 80 work from an old factory-warehouse. Using clay, fibreglass and silicone, they construct extraordinary lifesize replicas of religious icons, cultural figures, cricketers and Bollywood stars.

But the workshop also has a popular new line: custom-made 30kg replicas of the dead, commissioned by family and loved ones.

Published: March 18, 2026, 12:16 am

What was Doge? How Elon Musk tried to gamify government

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

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

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

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

A photo of Iran’s bombed schoolgirl graveyard went around the world. Was it real, or AI?

Numerous faked images and a string of startlingly inaccurate responses from Gemini and Grok are part of a tidal wave of AI slop engulfing coverage of the Iran war

The graves, freshly dug, lie in neat rows of 20 across. More than 60 have already been carved out of the earth, with a few clusters of people standing gathered around them. Dozens more are marked out on the ground in front: small chalk rectangles, with diggers poised to complete their task.

The cemetery of Minab, photographed as it prepares to bury more than 100 of the town’s young girls, is one of the defining images of the US-Israeli war on Iran, bluntly capturing the devastating civilian toll.

Published: March 17, 2026, 5:00 am

Tell us: what has someone done that made you feel less lonely?

We would like to hear about the ways people have helped each other feel less isolated

Was someone there for you when you were feeling lonely? As part of the Guardian’s Well Actually series, we would like to hear about the ways people have helped each other feel less isolated. You can tell us your story below.

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Published: March 18, 2026, 10:32 am

Hungry seagulls, smuggled ants and St Patrick’s Day: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Published: March 17, 2026, 1:29 pm