A moment that changed me: I thought my Parkinson’s was the end of my life, but dancing changed everything

The moment I stepped into English National Ballet’s studio, I stopped being just a patient. Among fellow spirits, I have rediscovered my sense of joy and agency

Fourteen years ago, a neurologist told me: “You have Parkinson’s.” I remember his face before I remember his words: calm, certain, kind. Parkinson’s: a progressive neurological disease. No cure. In my mind, it was an old person’s disease. Something that happened to other people, later in life. Not to a single man in his early 50s who believed there was still time for romance, adventure, reinvention.

What terrified me most wasn’t the tremors or the stiffness. It was the imagined future. I pictured a partner signing up not for love, but for care. I thought: who would choose that? Who would choose me, knowing this?

Published: March 25, 2026, 6:45 am

We’re letting big corporations gamble with our lives. Act now, or the food could run out | George Monbiot

The fragility of the global food system fills me with dread – and the war with Iran has exposed just how close to collapse it is

The fate of environmentalists is to spend their lives trying not to be proved right. Vindication is what we dread. But there’s one threat that haunts me more than any other: the collapse of the global food system. We cannot predict what the immediate trigger might be. But the war with Iran is just the right kind of event.

Drawing on years of scientific data, I’ve been arguing for some time that this risk exists – and that governments are completely unprepared for it. In 2023, I made a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into environmental change and food security, with a vast list of references. Called as a witness, I spent much of the time explaining that the issue was much wider than the inquiry’s scope.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Published: March 25, 2026, 7:00 am

The Maga divide over Iran – podcast

Andrew Roth on why the war on Iran is unpopular with the US public and what it means for Maga insiders

Andrew Roth, the Guardian’s global affairs correspondent based in Washington DC, says reporting on the US and Israeli war on Iran gives you “whiplash”.

“We’re so used to going into these kinds of wars and conflicts where there’s a massive plan for what’s going to happen six weeks from now, six months from now,” he tells Michael Safi.

Published: March 25, 2026, 3:00 am

‘I’m deathly afraid’: what is digital spirituality leading us toward?

Where traditional religion once gathered people together, digital spirituality is now consumed in isolation, mediated by tech gods with opaque agendas

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Jim Pu’u didn’t set out to find God. His soul-searching began with a modest idea: to leave a record of his life in case something happened to him. His own father had died young, leaving behind only scraps of his memory, and he didn’t want his daughter to face the same void.

In December of 2024, Pu’u, who is 36 and runs a warehouse for a commercial flooring company in Las Vegas, turned to AI.

Published: March 24, 2026, 5:00 pm

Do we really need eight hours sleep a night – and what happens if we don’t get it?

We’re told that sleep is a superpower, making us smarter, healthier and happier. But how much is enough? And is insomnia as bad for us as we think?

‘Once, after I did a presentation, someone came up to me and said, ‘I don’t get eight hours of sleep a night. Am I going to die?’” says Prof Russell Foster, head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford. “And I said, ‘Well, yes, you’re going to die. But, you know, we all die eventually.’”

This exchange is, hopefully, comforting, but it also shouldn’t be too surprising. Over the past decade or so, we’ve been repeatedly told that sleep is everything from a legal performance-enhancer to an actual superpower – and, conversely, that if we don’t get enough shuteye we’re risking an early start to our eternal slumber. But how bad is a lack of sleep, really? And if we seem to be coping fine on six hours a night, is there a chance we’re still setting ourselves up for problems further down the line?

Published: March 24, 2026, 2:00 pm

Why going to an HBCU might be better for Black students’ health

A study found correlation between the environment and long-term wellness in sample of 1,978 who attended college between 1940-80

Attending a historically Black college or university (HBCU) as a young adult may be linked with better later-life cognitive outcomes for Black Americans, according to a recent study. The authors sampled 1,978 Black American adults who attended college between 1940 and 1980 (35% attended an HBCU), and who attended a high school in a state with an HBCU. The conclusion? There may be a correlation between collegiate environment and long-term wellness.

During that time frame of attendance, two major policy implementations shaped schooling in the country: first, in 1952, Brown v Board of Education ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional; and second was the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which barred racial discrimination in school.

Published: March 24, 2026, 2:00 pm

Middle East crisis live: Iran’s military mocks Trump’s claims of ceasefire talks, strikes Gulf states overnight

Iran says it fired missiles at Israel and US forces in bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain; military spokesman asks US if it is ‘negotiating with yourselves’

• Trump’s rehashed 15-point Iran plan unlikely to appease Tehran

Iranian nationals with valid Australian tourist visas will be blocked from entering the country for six months, Australia’s home affairs minister said, citing concern some may decide to stay longer than they’re allowed.

Tony Burke said the direction was necessary as there was a risk Iranians on tourist visas visiting Australia may be unable or unlikely to leave when their visa expires.
The order only applies to people with a valid tourist visa outside of the country.
The government said “sympathetic consideration” would be given to citizens with Iranian parents.

The government said it would closely monitor global developments and adjust settings as required.

If you’re just joining us, here’s a quick recap of the day:

An Iranian military spokesperson mocked US attempts at a ceasefire deal, insisting Americans were only negotiating with themselves. Lt Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari’s statement came after the Trump administration reportedly sent a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran through Pakistan.

Even as Donald Trump claimed productive negotiations to end the war were ongoing with Tehran, Iran’s relentless bombardment of the Gulf states showed no sign of relenting. Kuwait and Bahrain were both hit with damaging strikes on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, as the patience of the Gulf states after rebuffing constant attacks for almost a month began to wear thin.

The World Trade Organisation warned disruptions to international fertiliser supplies caused by the closing of the strait of Hormuz will cause food scarcity and high prices. A third of the world’s fertilisers normally transit the strait.

Oil prices fell nearly 6% and Asian shares gained, after reports Donald Trump had sent a peace plan to Iran fuelled optimism in the market. A barrel of Brent crude was down 5.92% at $98.30, while benchmark US oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, was down 5.01% at $87.72.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed nine people, state media reported. Citing the health ministry, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said strikes had killed people across towns and a Palestinian refugee camp.

News that Trump had approved the deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East further undermined the US president’s repeated claims of successful peace talks. Iran has previously threatened to mine the gulf surrounding the island if the US appeared to be landing troops.

Published: March 25, 2026, 9:01 am

US set to send airborne troops to Middle East as Trump claims talks with Iran taking place

Israel and Gulf states are targeted by Iran while Tehran denies any negotiations with US to end war

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The US is poised to deploy airborne troops to the Middle East as strikes intensified across the region on Tuesday and Donald Trump claimed the US was in “very good” talks with Iran to end the war.

Early on Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had launched a new wave of attacks against locations in Israel including Tel Aviv and Kiryat Shmona, as well as US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. Drones hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait international airport, the Gulf state’s civil aviation authority said.

Published: March 25, 2026, 5:02 am

Trump’s rehashed 15-point Iran plan unlikely to appease Tehran

Diplomats say US president’s latest claimed plan probably based on now outdated framework put forward in May 2025

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The 15-point framework plan for peace with Iran that Donald Trump has said is being discussed is based on a proposal put forward by his negotiating team during nuclear talks almost a year ago, diplomats with knowledge of the talks believe.

That original 15-point plan was the basis for negotiations in late May 2025, shortly before the talks collapsed due to Israeli airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Published: March 24, 2026, 7:45 pm

Meta ordered to pay $375m after being found liable in child exploitation case

New Mexico hails ‘historic’ win after jury finds firm misled consumers over safety and enabled harm against users

A New Mexico jury on Tuesday ordered Meta to pay $375m in civil penalties after it found the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm, including child sexual exploitation, against its users.

This is the first bench trial to find Meta liable for acts committed on its platform.

Published: March 24, 2026, 11:16 pm

Democrats flip seat in Florida state house in district that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Emily Gregory defeats Republican Jon Maples in district that is home to US president’s Palm Beach estate

Democrats managed to flip a seat in the Florida state house in the district that is home to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Emily Gregory, a Democrat, defeated Republican Jon Maples, who had an endorsement from the US president, in the special election in Florida’s 87th state house district. The Associated Press called the race on Tuesday evening, with Gregory, a public health expert and small business owner, leading by more than 2 percentage points.

Published: March 25, 2026, 1:02 am

Prosecutors examined whether Trump disclosed classified map on plane after leaving office

Susie Wiles was on plane and witnessed event, according to files shown to House judiciary committee

Federal prosecutors examined whether Donald Trump showed a classified map to people on his plane after his first term, including to his now White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, according to justice department materials produced to the House judiciary committee.

The incident was described in a 13 January 2023 briefing memo prepared for the then attorney general, Merrick Garland – roughly six months before special counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.

Published: March 25, 2026, 9:00 am

No Israel prosecutions for killing Palestinian civilians in occupied West Bank since start of decade

Dozens of former Israeli military, police and spy chiefs describe situation as ‘organised Jewish terrorism’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Israel has not prosecuted its citizens for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank since the start of this decade, a Guardian analysis of legal data and public records show, creating impunity for a campaign of violence.

Attacks have spurred former prime minister Ehud Olmert to call for an intervention by the international criminal court (ICC), to “save the Palestinians and us [Israelis]” from state-backed settler violence, carried out with the complicity and sometimes participation of the police and military.

Published: March 25, 2026, 5:00 am

Canadian woman held with daughter by ICE warns all immigrants to ‘lie low’

Tania Warner says she has documents showing she is in the US legally, but immigration agents were not swayed

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A Canadian woman who has been imprisoned with her seven-year-old daughter by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has cautioned other immigrants that they are at risk of detention, even if they follow the correct legal process – and warned them to keep out of sight for as long as Donald Trump is president.

“Don’t go anywhere near a checkpoint, and if your papers are in processing, just lay low. Trump meant what he said – he is trying to get rid of everyone, whether they are good or bad,” said Tania Warner, 47, who is currently held with her autistic daughter, Ayla, at the Dilley immigration processing center in south Texas.

Published: March 24, 2026, 8:20 pm

Ex-teammate of quadruple amputee US cornhole pro accused of murder says case shocks him

Dayton Webber’s former playing partner says: ‘Dayton has a great family, and I care about that family. Yet obviously, there is somebody [who] died’

The former doubles partner of a professional, championship-winning cornhole player who had his four limbs amputated in his infancy and is now accused of a deadly shooting says he was shocked to learn about the case, calling it an instance of at least two families being torn apart in one fell swoop.

“I’ve been mad, sad – it sucks,” Mike Hoffman said of his past cornhole teammate Dayton Webber during a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Published: March 25, 2026, 9:00 am

Court blocks California effort to stop Republican sheriff’s ballot recount

Panel denies attorney general’s bid after Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco seized 650,000 special-election ballots

A three-judge panel has denied a filing by California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, seeking a court order to stop the Riverside county sheriff’s department from continuing its recount of ballots from the November 2025 special election.

The LA Times reported that Bonta filed a petition with the fourth appellate district on Monday, writing that “the sheriff’s misguided investigation threatens to sow distrust and jeopardize public confidence” in upcoming elections.

Published: March 25, 2026, 1:49 am

OpenAI shutters AI video generator Sora in abrupt announcement

Tech firm ‘says goodbye’ to Sora, made publicly available in 2024, just six months after its launch of a stand-alone app

In an abrupt announcement on Tuesday, OpenAI said it was “saying goodbye” to its AI video generator Sora. The move comes just six months after the company’s splashy launch of a stand-alone app where people could make and share hyper-realistic AI videos in a scrolling social feed.

“To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you,” the company wrote in a post on X. “What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing.”

Published: March 24, 2026, 10:34 pm

Stephen Colbert to write new Lord of the Rings film after end of the Late Show

Comedian and avid Tolkien fan to write the Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, a new Peter Jackson-produced film based on unadapted chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring

Stephen Colbert has lined up his next job after finishing up as host of The Late Show in May: writing a new Lord of the Rings film tentatively titled The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past.

Film-maker Peter Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy, made the surprise announcement in a video on social media on Tuesday. Colbert is an avid, lifelong JRR Tolkien fan and even had a small cameo in Jackson’s 2013 film The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug alongside his wife and children.

Published: March 25, 2026, 5:38 am

Trump news at a glance: president claims victory in Iran war as US prepares to deploy more troops

President continues to tout ‘very good’ talks with Iran, which Iranian officials continue to deny – key US politics stories from 24 March 2026 at a glance

Donald Trump declared victory in his war on Iran on Tuesday amid reports that the US is in the process of deploying about 1,000 more soldiers to the region as the president touts “very good” talks with Iran are ongoing. Iranian officials continue to deny that.

Iranian barrages targeted Israel, Gulf Arab states and northern Iraq on Tuesday, while Israeli and US warplanes continued to carry out strikes across Tehran and on other targets in the Islamic Republic. Israel indicated that it planned to occupy control over swaths of southern Lebanon in what one Hezbollah official told Reuters was an “existential threat” to the Lebanese state.

Published: March 25, 2026, 1:06 am

Welcome to America! Trump names ‘manosphere’ troll as tourism envoy

Australian-born Maga influencer Nick Adams appointed to role for tourism, exceptionalism and American values

Donald Trump’s appointment of Nick Adams, the “alpha male” Australian turned American internet provocateur as a new special presidential envoy on Tuesday, could give fuel to theories that the White House is deliberately trolling the world.

The president nominated the Sydney-born Maga influencer, who has a history of theatrically inflammatory and Islamophobic comments, as ambassador to Malaysia in July, but the Senate returned the appointment without a confirmation vote in January and Trump did not re-submit him.

Published: March 24, 2026, 5:59 pm

New York Times accuses Pentagon of defying judge’s press access order

DoD announces ‘interim’ policy for journalists decried by newspaper as ‘end-run around the court’s ruling’

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The New York Times on Tuesday accused the Pentagon of disobeying a judge’s ruling that undid much of the restrictive agreement journalists were forced to sign or lose access to the building.

The judge, Paul Friedman, granted an injunction on Friday that overturned much of the language in the “media in-brief” document that had so concerned many news organizations that cover the Pentagon that almost all journalists chose instead to give back their press badges. He also ordered that seven journalists from the Times be returned their badges.

Published: March 24, 2026, 11:02 pm

Nasa to spend $20bn on moon base after cancelling orbiting station

New Nasa chief outlines changes to moon programme Artemis including repurposing Lunar Gateway

Nasa is cancelling plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead use its components to construct a $20bn base on the moon’s surface over the next seven years, its new chief, Jared Isaacman, said on Tuesday.

Isaacman, who was sworn in at the agency in December, made the announcement at the opening of a daylong event at Nasa’s Washington headquarters at which he outlinedchanges he is making to the agency’s flagship moon programme Artemis.

Published: March 24, 2026, 5:57 pm

Arizona’s guns are feeding the bloodshed in Mexico’s cartel war

As Sinaloa’s conflict grinds on, firearms traced to recent US sales are increasingly linked to Arizona

When war broke out within the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organisations, people hoped it would last just a few months.

But more than a year and a half later it is still going, fuelled by a flow of firearms from the US – specifically from Arizona, which has surged past Texas to become the top source of guns seized in Mexico and traced to a recent US purchase.

Published: March 24, 2026, 4:00 pm

Ukraine war briefing: Moldova declares emergency after Russian attack cuts key power line

President urges people to reduce consumption after power line passing through Ukraine damaged by drones; Moscow spring offensive steps up. What we know on day 1,491

Moldova declared a state of emergency in the energy sector after a key power line with Europe was disconnected following Russian strikes in Ukraine. The declaration comes into effect on Wednesday and lasts for 60 days. The prime minister, Alexandru Munteanu, appealed to people to “avoid unnecessary consumption, especially during peak hours” and “stay united”, according to a statement from parliament. The former Soviet republic imports electricity from neighbouring EU member Romania, mostly via a power cable that passes through southern Ukraine. Moldovan authorities said crashed drones had been identified in Ukraine near the line and that “demining operations” were needed before repairs could be done. Restoring the power line itself was expected to take up to seven days, the energy minister, Dorin Junghietu was quoted by the Moldovan media outlet Ziarul de Gardă as saying. “Russia alone bears responsibility,” the Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, wrote on X, while the foreign ministry also condemned the Russian attacks. Russia has frequently targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since it invaded its neighbour in 2022.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has accused Russia of “absolute depravity” after Moscow fired an unprecedented daytime barrage across Ukraine, including on the historical centre of the western city of Lviv. “Iranian ‘shaheds’ [attack drones], modernised by Russia, are striking a church in Lviv – this is absolute depravity, and only someone like [Vladimir] Putin could find this appealing,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address. “The scale of this attack makes it abundantly clear that Russia has no intention of actually ending this war,” Zelenskyy added, vowing that Ukraine “will certainly respond to any attacks”.

Russia’s military said on Wednesday it had shot down 389 Ukrainian drones overnight in one of the largest attacks to date. Russian regions bordering Ukraine, as well as Moscow and northwestern Leningrad were the main areas targeted, according to the military.

Moscow appears to be stepping up a spring offensive intended to break Ukrainian resistance, writes Pjotr Sauer. Ukrainian officials said Moscow fired nearly 400 long-range drones and 23 cruise missiles overnight, followed by another 556 drones in an unusual daytime assault on Tuesday, hitting cities across the west of the country and killing at least seven people. Taken together, the barrage marks one of the largest aerial bombardments of Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion more than four years ago. One Russian drone struck the Bernardine monastery, a 16th-century church in Lviv’s Unesco-listed medieval centre, causing damage, local authorities said.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said his country would always support Russia in a thank-you letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Ties between the two have grown closer since Putin began the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Pyongyang sending ground troops and weapons systems to aid Russia’s war effort. “I express my sincere thanks to you for sending warm and sincere congratulations first on my reassumption of the heavy duty as president of the state affairs,” Kim said in the message on Tuesday, the official Korean central news agency said. “Today the DPRK and Russia are closely cooperating to defend the sovereignty of the two countries,” Kim said, using the initials of the North’s official name. “Pyongyang will always be with Moscow. This is our choice and unshakable will,” he added. South Korean and western intelligence agencies have estimated that the North has sent thousands of soldiers to Russia, primarily to the Kursk region, along with artillery shells, missiles and long-range rocket systems. Analysts say the assistance has been provided in exchange for Russia’s provision of food and weapons technologies.

Published: March 25, 2026, 5:49 am

Divide between Silicon Valley and ordinary people grows ever larger

Big tech believes the future is AI while everyday Americans remain wary; and the dangers of riding in a Tesla Cybertruck

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery. This week in tech, we discuss a moment of divergence between Silicon Valley and everyday people; deep cuts at Meta to maximize spending on AI; writers caught using AI; and the frightening, fiery crashes of the Tesla Cybertruck.

How the FBI can conduct mass surveillance – even without AI

Kash Patel admits under oath FBI is buying location data on Americans

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

Published: March 24, 2026, 1:58 pm

Bait review – Riz Ahmed’s comedy is petty, narcissistic … and excellent

Part autobiography, part industry satire, this hilarious show boasts dazzling dialogue and ace cameos. But surely Ahmed has better things to do than play James Bond?

If I was Riz Ahmed, I would be very up myself too. In the two decades since his screen career began, the actor has won Oscars and Baftas; been cast in a Star Wars film and a Charli xcx video; inspired a metric for Muslim on-screen representation (the Riz Test) and crafted a body of work comprising performances which are both individually excellent and collectively meaningful.

He has done so by combining talent with an unusual willingness to engage with the wider context of what it means to be a brown British person on 21st-century planet Earth. I imagine a certain amount of ego is also necessary to power the whole enterprise. And if so, what of it?

Published: March 25, 2026, 5:00 am

‘His perspective is so relevant’: the A-listers bringing Henry David Thoreau back to screen

Ken Burns’ new three-part documentary shows why it’s not too late for us to learn from the great naturalist

Henry David Thoreau is a new PBS documentary in three parts, each an hour long. The project comes with a voiceover cast of heavyweights, with narration from George Clooney, Jeff Goldblum playing the great essayist and additional voices from Ted Danson, Tate Donovan and Meryl Streep.

The project first began life as a short film by Don Henley, the Eagles frontman having long worked to preserve Walden Pond. Henley wanted to capture Thoreau’s time spent in the woodlands outside Concord, Massachusetts, between 1845 and 1847 and the great book that resulted: Walden; or, Life in the Woods. After enlisting Ken Burns, the legendary documentarian, as executive project, the pair entrusted the project to two collaborators, brothers Erik and Christopher Loren Ewers. Like the ferns and fiddleheads that carpet the forest floor at Walden, the film began to grow.

Published: March 25, 2026, 9:02 am

The Writer and the Traitor by Robert Verkaik review – the strange case of Graham Greene and Kim Philby

Sex, booze and subterfuge in the story of an extraordinary friendship at the heart of MI6

At the Café Royal in Regent Street in 1944 three intelligence officers bent over their plates while Europe held its breath. Outside, London braced for D-day. Inside, Graham Greene announced that he was resigning from MI6.

Kim Philby, his chief in Section V, MI6’s counterespionage arm, blinked. Educated at Westminster, converted to communism at Cambridge and by then securely installed as Moscow’s man at the heart of the British establishment, he had helped orchestrate the deception on which Operation Overlord depended, persuading Hitler that the allies would land at Calais rather than Normandy. Greene had played his part in tending the illusion. Yet here he was, strolling off-stage before the curtain rose.

Published: March 25, 2026, 7:00 am

Snow joke: capturing a land without colour – in pictures

For six months out of 12, Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido is covered in snow. Elizabeth Sanjuan’s haunting images make the most of this monochrome landscape

Published: March 25, 2026, 7:00 am

Bridgerton’s fifth season will focus on queer love story between Francesca Bridgerton and Michaela Stirling

In a first for the juggernaut Netflix show, the young widow will find herself in a ‘complicated’ relationship with her cousin-in-law

Dearest gentle reader … Netflix has announced that Bridgerton’s upcoming fifth season will focus on a gay lead storyline in a first for the hit romantic period drama.

Netflix confirmed the news on Tuesday while also revealing that the new season is in production.

Published: March 25, 2026, 4:38 am

‘It can spare people so much pain’: what is an advance directive and should you get one?

My sister and I had to make decisions that determined the course of my parents’ final hours. This important end-of-life document could have guided us

My parents died three years and two ICU rooms apart. Both were still in their 60s. Neither had a finished will, much less an advance directive – a set of care instructions someone prepares in case they become incapacitated – that could have guided my sister and me. In our early 30s, shellshocked by brutal surprise, we made decisions that determined the course of their final hours.

Today, we trust that we honored their wishes, but doubt and distress linger.

Published: March 24, 2026, 4:00 pm

The Islamic Republic has not crushed the Iranian people’s resolve. This war will not do so either | Azar Nafisi

Life and freedom are integral to the Iranian spirit. Even amid these dark days, I have hope that the conflict could liberate my people

What is a writer’s responsibility? I feel that it has always been to give voice to those who have been silenced and to keep people alive through recreating them in our imagination, time and time again.

This is what I have in mind as the Iranian people live through their worst period of suffering in 47 years. Thousands are dead. Friends in Tehran hide in their homes, not able to go out for explosions and acid rain. Worst of all, they know that it is not just foreign bombs that threaten their lives. Their own government continues to patrol the streets with guns, beating people, arresting them, killing them.

As told to Lucy Pasha-Robinson. Azar Nafisi is an Iranian-American writer and the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Read Dangerously, and other works

Published: March 25, 2026, 6:00 am

Like Putin, Trump is a megalomaniac. In Europe, we can shield ourselves, not look for rational motives | Robert Habeck

I had to deal with energy shock in Germany after Putin invaded Ukraine. The solution now is the same: buy ourselves out of the fossil fuels trap

Yes, there are big differences between the war of aggression that Russia has now been waging against Ukraine for four years and the war the US and Israel launched against Iran. The biggest difference: the US is still a democracy. Even a president who considers himself all-powerful is not. From scathing press coverage to anger over high oil prices, fear of the midterm elections and – the capitalist form of democracy – falling stock prices, what people think makes a difference. That is why the US president is occasionally forced to change his mind. That is not the case in Russia.

Vladimir Putin had a clear plan: Russia wanted to occupy the whole of Ukraine and turn it into a satellite state or annex its territory. Putin was preparing for this war for years, in my view; this included a cheap energy trap into which he successfully lured Germany through the construction of Nord Stream 2 and the purchase of gas storage facilities and refineries by Gazprom and Rosneft.

Published: March 25, 2026, 5:00 am

What to understand why Trump is still bombing Iran? Look to Nixon and Vietnam | Kenneth Roth

Richard Nixon’s strategy was about shielding his own reputation. Now Trump needs a face-saving exit of his own

Donald Trump’s struggle to justify continuing his war with Iran reminds me of Richard Nixon’s quest for “peace with honor” in Vietnam. Nixon caused years of death and suffering in pursuit of his elusive goal. How much more devastation will Trump inflict before he cuts his losses and calls off this pointless conflict?

Nixon first called for “an honorable end” to the war in his acceptance speech at the 1968 Republican national convention. It became a centerpiece of his presidential campaign and his presidency. As it became clear that the South Vietnamese government could not survive US withdrawal from the war, Nixon sought to defend Washington’s credibility, cynically understood as a decent interval between America’s departure and Saigon’s collapse.

Published: March 24, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump’s sanctions against a UN human rights expert show free speech is dying |

Francesca Albanese recommended ICC arrests and investigations over Gaza. Who will be the administration’s next target?

We are North American university professors and human rights lawyers who teach, write, and speak about the human rights of people around the world, including Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. In a country that purports to value democracy and human rights, we never imagined that we could face civil penalties or imprisonment for our work. That sense of security has evaporated after the Trump administration issued a series of executive orders and memoranda that aim to stifle speech and demonize dissent – particularly when it comes to Israel’s crimes against Palestinians living in Gaza.

Let us be clear: the evidence that Israel has committed war crimes is overwhelming. Israel killed an estimated 20,000 children – including more than 1,000 babies – in two years of war. Israel used starvation and thirst as a war tactic, leading to widespread famine that indiscriminately targeted the civilian population. It kept civilians from accessing cancer treatment, neonatal and maternal care, and basic antibiotics and painkillers by blockading the delivery of medical equipment and medications. Israel destroyed Gaza’s entire healthcare system, including reproductive healthcare facilities and Gaza’s largest fertility clinic. Israel’s systematic attack on Gaza’s civilian population was accompanied by dehumanizing language by authorities at the highest levels of government comparing Palestinians to “‘human animals” and “children of darkness”.

Sandra L Babcock is a clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School. Susan M Akram is clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law. Asli Bali is a Professor at Yale Law School and is the past President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Thomas Becker is the Legal and Policy Director at the University Network for Human Rights and teaches human rights at Columbia Law School. James Cavallaro is the Executive Director of the University Network for Human Rights and a visiting professor at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs

Published: March 24, 2026, 10:00 am

Why is the US so expensive? Everything comes in a ‘premium’ version, from doctors’ appointments to movies | Arwa Mahdawi

Want a good view of the cinema screen? You’ll need to sign up to the VIP scheme. A quick chat with your doctor? An extra $50,000 will let you jump the queue

‘What’s great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest,” Andy Warhol wrote in 1975. “You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke [and] you can drink Coke, too … The idea of America is so wonderful because the more equal something is, the more American it is.”

Fifty years later, it’s still true that the Diet Coke Donald Trump is chugging by the caseload in the Oval Office is exactly the same stuff his public can buy in a local shop. But the idea that mass consumerism is characterised by equality is about as dead as Warhol is. There are precious few products or experiences that haven’t been segmented into multiple tiers, from “embarrassing pauper” to “ultra-VIP”, in order to extract as much money from the consumer as possible.

Published: March 24, 2026, 2:20 pm

As the US midterms approach, AI is going to emerge as a key issue concerning voters | Nathan E Sanders and Bruce Schneier

There is a political divide over AI but few leaders are taking a strong stand. It’s time for that to change

In December, the Trump administration signed an executive order that neutered states’ ability to regulate AI by ordering his administration to both sue and withhold funds from states that try to do so. This action pointedly supported industry lobbyists keen to avoid any constraints and consequences on their deployment of AI, while undermining the efforts of consumers, advocates, and industry associations concerned about AI’s harms who have spent years pushing for state regulation.

Trump’s actions have clarified the ideological alignments around AI within America’s electoral factions. They set down lines on a new playing field for the midterm elections, prompting members of his party, the opposition, and all of us to consider where we stand in the debate over how and where to let AI transform our lives.

Published: March 24, 2026, 12:00 pm

Ella Baron on Donald Trump’s peace negotiations with Iran – cartoon

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Published: March 24, 2026, 5:41 pm

The Guardian view on the Iran war: energy, markets and a dangerous illusion | Editorial

Markets and the Treasury are pricing a quick exit. Without a credible political endgame, Donald Trump cannot deliver one

Whatever else Donald Trump’s “pause” is, it is not a ceasefire. Iranian barrages targeted Israel, Gulf Arab states and northern Iraq on Tuesday, while Israeli and US warplanes struck across Iran. What Mr Trump’s statement did was to narrow US targets to exclude power plants and energy infrastructure to calm jittery markets. But the fighting continues. With reports that the US is considering boots on the ground, Washington is waging war while searching for an exit – without a credible or unified negotiating position, as Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu pursues his own agenda.

Mr Trump’s strategy, if he has one, might be to soothe markets now – and launch a massive escalatory strike over the weekend when trading desks are closed, in the hope of forcing the Iranian regime to fracture or capitulate. This rests on the idea that Tehran is brittle and will crack under American “shock and awe”. Sir Keir Starmer’s implicit judgment is that Iran will not cave. That disagreement may have been enough to send him to Mr Trump’s doghouse. Britain must stay out of US-Israeli adventurism. The war’s constraint is not capability – Washington has plenty of air power and Iran offers plenty of targets. But nothing can be resolved without a politically achievable objective.

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Published: March 24, 2026, 6:52 pm

‘I will never walk alone’: Mohamed Salah to leave Liverpool on free transfer at end of season

• Legendary forward will end contract 12 months early

• ‘We do not know where Mohamed will play next season’

Mohamed Salah has announced he will leave Liverpool at the end of the season, bringing to a close one of the greatest careers in the club’s storied history.

In an agreement with Liverpool, the Egypt international will depart on a free transfer this summer despite having 12 months remaining on his contract.

Published: March 24, 2026, 9:46 pm

Coco Gauff battles impostor syndrome on way into Miami Open semi-finals

• American No 4 seed beats Belinda Bencic 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in quarter-final

• Gauff next faces 13th seed Karolína Muchová for a place in final

Coco Gauff may be struggling with an unfamiliar arm injury, indifferent form and the pressure of attempting to transform her serve with the entire tennis world watching, but the one quality that will never evade her is her fighting spirit.

Under far from ideal circumstances, Gauff’s mental toughness continues to guide her through the Miami Open draw and to her best ever result at her home town tournament. She navigated a path into the semi-finals for the first time in her career with an arduous 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over Bencic.

Published: March 25, 2026, 5:08 am

WNBA team owners ratify new CBA that will see top players earn $1.4m a year

• Board and players unanimously approve new CBA deal

• Seven-year agreement runs through end of 2032 season

• Free agency, expansion draft now come in quick rush

• Explained: what the new deal means for players

The WNBA’s board of governors unanimously ratified the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement on Tuesday.

Their vote came a day after the players also unanimously approved the seven-year CBA, which will begin this season and run through 2032. It represents a landmark labor deal for the WNBA and its players. Under the terms of the new deal, the minimum salary for the league will be $270,000 – last season the maximum salary was about $250,000. There will be hefty rewards for the best players, with the supermax salary coming in at $1.4m. The salary cap for each team this coming season will be $7m, up from $1.5m in 2025.

Published: March 24, 2026, 8:11 pm

Molly Miller, ‘pretty privilege’ and women’s basketball’s beauty trap

Arizona State’s head coach has turned around a losing program. Unsurprisingly, much of the discourse on the internet was not based on her leadership skills

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In March 2025, the Arizona State women’s basketball team were looking for a coach who could end a drought that had seen them go without a NCAA Tournament appearance – or even a winning season – since 2019-20.

The choice was Molly Miller, a proven and successful head coach at Grand Canyon. Miller had led the Lopes to their first NCAA Tournament appearance and a 32–3 record in her final season with the team – a benchmark for the program and an important accomplishment within the broader scope of college basketball. She soon turned around Arizona State, leading them to a 24-11 record and a first appearance at the NCAA Tournament in six years. (Their season ended in the First Four.)

Published: March 24, 2026, 9:00 am

Death in the strike zone: the mysterious fate of James Creighton, baseball’s first star

A new book explores the career of a player who many credit with inventing the curveball, and why he has been kept out of the Hall of Fame

The Civil War provides a host of baseball-related mysteries pertaining to pitcher James Creighton. By the time of his death at age 21 in 1862, Creighton had compiled a ledger of accomplishments, starring for one of America’s top teams at the time, the Brooklyn Excelsiors. His grave became a shrine to the player and the sport he dominated. Then the clouds came in – over the circumstances of his death, over the achievements of his career. He is not in the Hall of Fame, but baseball historian Thomas Gilbert makes a convincing case for his inclusion in a new book, Death in the Strike Zone: The Mystery of America’s First Baseball Hero.

“One hundred years ago, his impact was clear,” Gilbert says. “Until the turn of the 20th century, he was remembered and talked about … When Albert Spalding wrote his book on baseball in 1911, he said: ‘Obviously Creighton was the greatest, fastest pitcher ever.’”

Published: March 24, 2026, 10:00 am

Antoine Griezmann to leave Atlético Madrid and join MLS’s Orlando City

• French superstar played 10 years for Atlético

• Forward will join Orlando in July on a deal through 2029

• Atlético plays Barcelona in Copa del Rey final in April

Orlando City SC completed the long-anticipated signing of Atlético Madrid superstar Antoine Griezmann on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old French attacker is signed from July 2026 through the 2027-28 season with an option for 2028-29. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Published: March 24, 2026, 5:33 pm

Mikaela Shiffrin on verge of overall World Cup title after record slalom win

• Shiffrin wins slalom to move 85 points clear overall

• Aicher must win Wednesday’s giant slalom finale

• American star eyes record-tying sixth overall crown

Mikaela Shiffrin v Emma Aicher for the most prestigious title in women’s skiing will go to the season-ending final race on Wednesday.

Shiffrin won yet another slalom on Tuesday – her ninth in 10 World Cup starts this season – by a massive margin of 1.32sec ahead of Wendy Holdener.

Published: March 24, 2026, 2:39 pm

A Canadian goal threat to a versatile Spaniard: three of the best teenagers in women’s football

Kaylee Hunter, Justine Rouquet and Aiara Agirrezabala could all be earning themselves big moves in the near future

Vicky López, Lily Yohannes, Michelle Agyemang — these are all names you may have heard before. They are the best and brightest of the next generation; youngsters already logging consistent minutes at the largest clubs in the world. They are the future – but what about the rest? Where are the talents that have yet to make big moves and are still, slowly but surely, carving out their space on the global stage?

Here are three teenagers that could be earning themselves major moves in the near future.

Published: March 24, 2026, 10:00 am

US-Israel war on Iran: how football in the region is struggling to deal with the fallout

From World Cup preparations to Champions League complications, the issues facing football in the region

It has been a little over three weeks since the United States and Israel attacked Iran and plunged the Middle East into war. Football there is struggling to deal with the fallout from the conflict. Here are the issues.

Published: March 24, 2026, 12:10 pm

Mullin sworn in as DHS secretary as Republicans pitch new funding offer

Senate leader proposes compromise to fund homeland security shutdown amid chaotic scenes at airports

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Donald Trump on Tuesday swore in Markwayne Mullin as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), while Senate Republicans unveiled a compromise that would restart funding to most of the agency but appears to exclude reforms to immigration enforcement Democrats have demanded.

The two parties have been at an impasse over DHS funding since mid-February, after Democrats insisted any legislation include new guardrails on immigration enforcement after federal agents killed two US citizens in Minneapolis.

Published: March 24, 2026, 8:15 pm

Russia fires nearly 1,000 drones in one of its largest aerial attacks on Ukraine

At least seven killed as Moscow appears to step up spring offensive amid concerns focus on Iran war leaves Kyiv more vulnerable

Russia has launched a huge wave of nearly 1,000 drones at Ukraine, killing at least seven people, as Moscow appears to be stepping up a spring offensive intended to break Ukrainian resistance along the front.

Ukrainian officials said Moscow fired nearly 400 long-range drones and 23 cruise missiles overnight, followed by another 556 drones in an unusual daytime assault on Tuesday, hitting cities across the west of the country.

Published: March 24, 2026, 6:15 pm

Judge sets $1 bail for Georgia woman charged with murder for taking abortion pills

Alexia Moore was arrested under a Georgia law that bans abortions after detection of embryonic cardiac activity

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A Georgia judge set a $1 bond for a woman facing murder charges tied to allegations she used abortion pills to end a pregnancy, potentially paving the way for a possible reduction or dismissal of charges.

Alexia Moore, 31, was arrested by police in Savannah earlier this month on a warrant that echoed a 2019 Georgia law banning abortions after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected.

Published: March 24, 2026, 7:06 pm

Man who talked down hospital bomber says would-be attacker asked for a cuddle

Nathan Newby set to receive George Medal for stopping a potential atrocity with an act of kindness

A hospital patient who managed to talk a man out of detonating a bomb in a maternity wing said the would-be attacker “asked for a cuddle” before standing down.

Nathan Newby, who stopped an atrocity through an act of kindness, spoke publicly for the first time about his encounter with Mohammad Farooq before receiving the George Medal for bravery.

Published: March 24, 2026, 11:13 pm

South African work banned from Venice Biennale to be shown outside main event

South Africa’s Venice pavilion left empty after Gabrielle Goliath’s ‘highly divisive’ tribute to Palestinian poet blocked

A piece of performance art that was blocked from representing South Africa at the upcoming Venice Biennale over its supposedly “highly divisive” tribute to a Palestinian poet will go on display at the world’s largest art exhibition after all.

South African artist Gabrielle Goliath’s project, Elegy, will be shown for three months from 4 May as a video installation at the Chiesa di Sant’Antonin church in the Castello district, a venue in the vicinity of the main site that is not part of the Biennale.

Published: March 25, 2026, 7:00 am

California governor poll raises prospect of two Republicans contesting runoff

Survey puts Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco ahead with Democratic vote split between large field of candidates

Republicans continue to lead the California governor’s race amid a crowded field of Democrats, a new poll commissioned by the state’s Democratic party found, fueling concerns of a conservative win in the famously liberal state.

The party on Tuesday published the results of a large-scale poll of 2,000 likely voters conducted by Evitarus Research that revealed that 16% of participants would back the conservative political commentator Steve Hilton in the upcoming primary, while 14% would support Chad Bianco, the Riverside county sheriff.

Published: March 24, 2026, 9:07 pm

More frequent ejaculations may boost men’s fertility, research suggests

Need for abstinence before fertility treatment questioned as study finds sperm deteriorates as it stays in body

Encouraging men to have more frequent ejaculations may boost their fertility, according to researchers who found that sperm deteriorates over time as it remains in the body.

The longer men went without sex, the more their sperm showed signs of DNA damage and oxidative stress, and the more tests rated the sperm as less viable and poorer swimmers.

Published: March 25, 2026, 12:01 am

Red volcanic mud coats homes after Hawaii’s worst floods in 20 years

Oahu residents face gruelling cleanup as floods damage hundreds of homes and losses are expected to top $1bn

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The worst flooding to hit Hawaii in two decades has swept homes off their foundations, floated cars out of driveways and left floors, walls and counters covered in thick, reddish volcanic mud.

Authorities said hundreds of homes had been damaged, along with some schools and a hospital. On Monday, new downpours set off a fresh round of flooding on Oahu’s south side while residents on the island’s North Shore cleaned up and assessed the destruction from last week’s torrents. The National Weather Service said showers and thunderstorms were expected to wane but the Big Island remained under a flash flood watch.

Published: March 24, 2026, 2:57 pm

Epic river migrations of fish rapidly collapsing, UN report finds

Vast journeys, among world’s great wonders, found to be under threat as freshwater fish populations crash by 81%

“It’s very hard to imagine what’s going on beneath the water when you look at a river – but you have billions of fish making these epic migrations, some of the largest animal migrations on Earth,” said Dr Zeb Hogan, at the University of Nevada in the US.

The longest migration of any freshwater fish species is that of the dorado catfish, which makes a migration of 7,000 miles (11,000km), from spawning in the foothills of the Andes to feeding in the Amazon estuary and back again. The silver-gold fish themselves were incredible, said Hogan: “They get to about 2 metres long.”

Published: March 24, 2026, 12:00 pm

US public health groups urge firing of EPA boss Zeldin, saying he ‘brazenly betrayed’ agency

Advocates say Lee Zeldin’s EPA has rolled back protections and cut staff and funding, putting health at risk

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More than 160 environmental and public health organizations on Tuesday called for Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, to resign or be fired.

“No [EPA] administrator in history – Democratic or Republican – has so brazenly betrayed the agency’s core mission,” the groups wrote in an open letter. “EPA’s foremost purpose is to protect human health and the environment. With Administrator Lee Zeldin at the helm, EPA has abandoned its mission, creating damage that will take decades to address.”

Published: March 24, 2026, 4:18 pm

‘Extraordinary event’ for mountain gorillas as new twins born in DRC

Conservationists celebrate second twin birth just two months after another set discovered in Virunga national park

A second set of mountain gorilla twins has been born in Virunga national park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in what conservationists are celebrating as an “extraordinary” event for the endangered primates.

Just two months after tiny twin mountain gorillas were discovered by rangers in the Virunga massif, in eastern DRC, another rare twin birth has been found by park wardens. This time, an infant male and female have been spotted in the Baraka family, a troop of 19 mountain gorillas that roam the region’s high-altitude rainforests.

Published: March 24, 2026, 12:42 pm

Philadelphia airport sets world record for longest line of cheesesteaks

Nearly a thousand pounds of steak went into the meaty effort, and TSA agents, unpaid for weeks, ate the results

Philadelphia has set a world record for the “Longest Line of Cheesesteaks”, with 1,200ft of the city’s iconic sandwich stretching across the B/C connectors at the Philadelphia international airport (PHL).

The airport achieved the record on Tuesday with help from more than 100 employees and volunteers, who assembled foot-long rolls using 990lbs of Philly’s Best Steak and 225lbs of cheese sauce. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the full line took about an hour to complete.

Published: March 24, 2026, 11:08 pm

US supreme court appears sympathetic to Trump administration in asylum case

White House is defending US authority to turn away asylum seekers when officials deem the border too overburdened

US supreme court justices indicated sympathy on Tuesday toward Donald Trump’s administration in its defense of the government’s authority to turn away asylum seekers when officials deem US-Mexico border crossings too overburdened to handle additional claims.

The legal dispute centers on a policy called “metering” that the Republican president’s administration may seek to revive after it was dropped by Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden in 2021. The policy allowed US immigration officials to stop asylum seekers at the border and indefinitely decline to process their claims.

Published: March 24, 2026, 5:41 pm

Reacher star Alan Ritchson acted in self-defense in neighbor fight, Tennessee police say

Investigation concludes actor will not face criminal charges, with Ritchson also declining to pursue a potential charge against his neighbor

The Reacher star Alan Ritchson will not face criminal charges in relation to a widely publicised violent confrontation with a neighbor, after Tennessee police found he was acting in self-defense.

In a video obtained by TMZ on Sunday, the 43-year-old actor appeared to strike Ronnie Taylor several times as Taylor kneeled on the ground in a suburban neighborhood in Tennessee. Ritchson’s two children could be seen nearby sitting on motorbikes and watching the incident unfold.

Published: March 25, 2026, 12:18 am

Texas residents feel homes shake miles away from oil refinery explosion

Images and videos online showed large plume of smoke and flames billowing out from refinery, but no one was injured

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An oil refinery fire near the Texas coast was put out on Tuesday and a temporary shelter-in-place order was lifted, hours after a large explosion at the complex shot plumes of smoke into the air, officials said.

No one was injured in Monday’s explosion at the Valero refinery in Port Arthur, about 90 miles (145km) east of Houston, said Charlotte M Moses. The Port Arthur mayor had urged residents in parts of the west side of the city to stay put.

Published: March 24, 2026, 1:38 pm

Hong Kong bookstore staff arrested for allegedly selling ‘seditious’ Jimmy Lai biography, broadcaster reports

Owner of Book Punch store and three staff accused of selling copies of a biography of Jimmy Lai, a jailed pro-democracy activist and publisher

Hong Kong police arrested a bookstore owner and three shopkeepers on Tuesday for allegedly selling “seditious” publications including a biography of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai, broadcaster TVB reported.

The owner of the Book Punch store, Pong Yat-ming, and three staff were accused of selling copies of The Troublemaker, a biography of Lai by one of his former business directors, Mark Clifford, TVB reported.

Published: March 25, 2026, 3:14 am

Mette Frederiksen’s leftwing bloc fails to win majority in Danish election

Centre-left coalition appears likely as Social Democrats and other left-leaning parties win 84 seats, while right-leaning bloc wins 77 seats

Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats and Denmark’s other left-leaning parties appear to have failed to win enough votes to gain a clear mandate to form a government in an election fought amid geopolitical tensions with the US over Greenland.

With 100% of the vote counted in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the prime minister’s party won the most votes but performed worse than expected, with nearly 22% of the vote, leaving the Social Democrats and the other left-leaning parties that form the “red bloc” with 84 seats short of a majority in the 179-seat parliament.

Published: March 24, 2026, 11:44 pm

Jailed Bolsonaro granted ‘humanitarian house arrest’ amid failing health

Former Brazil president, serving 27 years over attempted coup, given initial 90-day period that could be extended

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Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been granted permission to serve his 27-year sentence for a coup attempt at home instead of in prison because of his failing health.

The decision by supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes followed Bolsonaro’s hospitalization since 13 March for pneumonia, one of several health problems the former leader has faced since he was stabbed by a man in 2018 before he was elected president.

Published: March 24, 2026, 7:03 pm

Taliban release US academic held in detention for more than a year

Marco Rubio welcomes release of Dennis Coyle, who was detained in January last year for violating unspecified laws

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have released the American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for over a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

A statement from the ministry said the academic researcher had been released in Kabul on Tuesday, following an appeal from his family and after Afghanistan’s supreme court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient”.

Published: March 24, 2026, 6:42 pm

‘What a fascinating challenge for an artist’: how Monet captured Venice in his twilight years

de Young Museum, San Francisco
New exhibition brings together the artist’s many Venetian paintings, a perfect match of artist and location that almost didn’t happen

Claude Monet was 68 years old before he ever set foot in Venice, surprisingly keeping his distance from a city that for hundreds of years has attracted many of Europe’s best painters. When Monet finally did get there, he created dozens of paintings and the French impressionist’s Venetian works are now the subject of a show at San Francisco’s de Young Museum, simply titled Monet and Venice.

“It might have been insecurity, because Venice had been painted so famously and by so many major names in western history,” said Melissa Buron, who co-curated the show with Lisa Small. As she explained, given Venice’s artistic pedigree, even a master such as Monet would have reason to feel intimidated by the location.

Published: March 24, 2026, 3:33 pm

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at 60: Elizabeth Taylor still crackles with feral energy

Mike Nichols’ 1966 adaptation of Edward Albee’s septic drama helped cement the play in the zeitgeist – where it has remained for the past six decades

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After a long day at work, we may not instinctively leap to films about toxic marriages and relationship breakdowns – but by God they can make good drama. Blue Valentine, The Squid and the Whale and A Separation are some of the great portraits of love turned septic. But perhaps greatest of all is Mike Nichols’ directorial debut – a sizzling adaptation of Edward Albee’s legendary Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which arrived in 1966, four years after the play, and helped cement it in the zeitgeist.

The film was nominated for every eligible Academy award and won five, including best actress for Elizabeth Taylor, who delivers a searing performance as the ferocious yet vulnerable Martha. It’s lost none of its gut-busting charge today and her brilliantly performed experience still crackles with emotional electricity.

Published: March 24, 2026, 2:00 pm

Jon Stewart on Donald Trump’s Iran lies: ‘Our Supreme Misleader’

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s bluffing on Iran ‘talks’ and his callous reaction to Robert Mueller’s death

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s tweet celebrating Robert Mueller’s death, his ICE intervention at chaotic airports and his bluffing on “talks” with Iran.

Published: March 24, 2026, 3:29 pm

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice review – double the Vince Vaughn in middling time travel comedy

Another run-of-the-mill streaming caper that fails to offer anything we haven’t seen done better many times before

Back in his 2000s studio comedy heyday, there would have been something commercially grabby about a film that offered up two Vince Vaughns for the price of one. In that period, it would have been a wide theatrical release and probably a considerable draw in the wake of hits such as Dodgeball, Wedding Crashers and The Break-Up. But cut to 2026, and the exhaustingly titled action comedy Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is a far shakier prospect, a drastically less marketable actor in a weakened genre that’s now almost exclusively streaming only.

It doesn’t help that it also lands after a year packed with other actors doing double duty – Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17, Dylan O’Brien in Twinless, Robert De Niro in Alto Knights, Elle Fanning in Predator: Badlands, Theo James in The Monkey and an Oscar-winning Michael B Jordan in Sinners – and what might have felt like a unique selling proposition now feels like yet more of the same. The film, which recently premiered at SXSW and is now landing swiftly on Hulu/Disney+, is the very definition of more of the same, a flavourless soup of limp quips and needle drops that resembles any other star-led action comedy that one has already double-screened on a streamer in recent times.

Published: March 24, 2026, 6:38 pm

‘Was that an earthquake?’ Italy’s great psychogeographer tackles the Vesuvius-haunted Naples tourists seldom see

His films about Rome’s ringroad and the islanders and refugees of Lampedusa have won awards. Now Gianfranco Rosi is completing his trilogy, capturing a Naples ‘that is not immediately there’

A uniform grey nimbostratus has blocked the rays of the London sun the day I speak to Gianfranco Rosi, but this consummately Italian film-maker is feeling right at home. “When Jean Cocteau visited Naples, he wrote a letter to his mother in which he said, ‘Vesuvius makes all the clouds in the world.’ And I think that’s a beautiful image.” He gives a gracious nod to the blanket of grey outside the window. “I am sure there is one cloud over London today that has come straight from southern Italy.”

Rosi, 62, has earned his reputation as one of Europe’s most important documentary-makers with highly original and poetic portraits of Italian places. His 2013 film Sacro GRA – the first documentary to win the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival – followed a motley cast of characters who live or work on the ringroad that circles Rome. Fire at Sea, which scooped the Golden Bear at the Berlinale three years later, was a study of the inhabitants of the island of Lampedusa and the people who arrived there on perilously crowded boats at the height of the refugee crisis. It elevated Rosi to an elite circle of directors to have won the top prize at two of Europe’s three main film festivals.

Published: March 24, 2026, 3:00 pm

Surrender to It review – insufferable bunch of actors reconnect for hiking weekend of pain and comedy

There are echoes here of 1992’s Peter’s Friends, and given this thriller’s preposterous script and amateurish production it is likely to generate similar levels of disdain

Writer-director Tim Bryn Smith clearly never got the memo, drafted immediately after the waves of derision that greeted luvvie-fest Peter’s Friends back in 1992, that any film revolving around a bunch of friends who are or were formerly actors having a reunion is fair game for sneering, sniping and all kinds of eye-rolling disdain. Because no one really likes watching actors playing actors, despite the recent Oscar win for Sentimental Value. But Bryn Smith and his chums apparently haven’t read the room, so here’s the damn near insufferable Surrender to It, which revolves around a motley collection of ageing would-be thespians who all met at a drama workshop back in the day reuniting for a hiking weekend.

The script, credited to Bryn Smith and Chris Wetton, feels like it rose out of a bunch of improv exercises and random suggestions fished out of a hat. One strand involves bereaved couple Dani (Daemian Greaves, the best of a very average lot in terms of performances here) and Celena (Melissa May Smith) who are mourning their dead son. While this is handled with some sensitivity, the maudlin tone doesn’t mix at all well with the supposedly comic subplots that occupy the rest of the running time. These focus on the other (highly unlikely) former best buds that include Ram (Fletcher Graham) who’s gone on to become a big-time movie star recovering from a recent scandal in the manner of Johnny Depp who has one hanger-on with him (Alexander Rose). Hugo (Bryn Smith) is meant to be the talent that never flourished who harbours deep feelings for another member of the group, but not the one you might think. There’s influencer Evie (Chantelle Lee) who has her own secret feelings for one of the cohort, and her pal Chrissy (Clare Alexandra Isabelle McGill) who is being courted by a gigolo with a ridiculous Latin accent whom we never meet. Dopey Timmy (Ben Grace) wants everyone to help him find treasure hidden by his recently deceased father.

Published: March 24, 2026, 11:00 am

Robyn: Sexistential review – pop doyenne returns with emotional grenades and a new philosophy

(Young)
After 2018’s meditative Honey, the Swedish star returns to her trademark skin-tingling electro bangers – but this time she’s unpicking her trademark fixation on romantic love

The self-proclaimed Fembot has always pushed people’s buttons. Robyn might be best known for bringing raw emotion to the dancefloor, but her pop bangers about desire and despair are often spiked with commentary on social programming: “Plug me in and flip some switches,” she once quipped, posing as a sexed-up cyborg with a bloody, beating heart. So it’s not a shock to find the Swedish star in a lab coat on Dopamine, her first single in seven years. The song rushes with glittering, arpeggiated synths, but Robyn, now 46, holds it at arm’s length. “I know it’s just dopamine, but it feels so real to me / I’m tripping on our chemistry,” she muses, taking notes as her synapses tingle. “Is love more than chemicals?” she seems to be asking. Does it matter if it’s not? But this time the song is no social critique – it’s a whole new philosophy.

Sexistential, Robyn’s ninth album, unravels the fixation on romantic love that fuelled her biggest songs. Gone are the soft edges and pulsing, sensual house of her previous album Honey, and back are the sharp electronic sounds of 2010’s Body Talk through a new lens. With long-term collaborator Klas Åhlund and a few familiar faces (including Metronomy’s Joe Mount and Swedish pop royalty Max Martin), Sexistential reimagines Robyn’s discography without romance as a vehicle. The title track is a sub-three-minute case study in her new mentality. Over minimal, jerking 80s house Robyn raps about hooking up while undergoing IVF as a solo parent: “Fuck a single mom, I’m not judgmental,” she winks, cleaving sex from reproduction and nuclear family. Its counterpart is Blow My Mind, a revamp of her billowy 2002 single made psychedelic, faster, sharper – no longer a textbook love song, but a song about loving her young son.

Published: March 24, 2026, 9:00 am

Enough Said by Alan Bennett review – a man for all seasons

Nostalgia, shame and gossip from Alan Bennett in the fourth instalment of his diaries

In the introduction to this new instalment of Alan Bennett’s diaries, which run from 2016 to 2024, the author worries about what to write: “I have said everything before. At 90 it’s impossible to avoid repetition.” And, indeed, I was halfway through the entries for 2020 before they started to seem familiar. It turns out that I had already reviewed Bennett’s pandemic diaries when they were released as a slim standalone volume in 2022.

Here they are again, then, this time embedded in a much longer stretch of journal-keeping, characterised by Bennett’s customary looping between past and present. The repetition turns out not to matter because the prose is sufficiently layered to take on new meanings as the context shifts. Bennett’s pandemic years read differently now that Covid is in the rearview mirror. The first time round, I got the impression that, devoted to the NHS though he is, the banging of pans on a Thursday evening struck him as a bit daft. Reading the section again, I’m convinced he detested the whole performative palaver.

Published: March 24, 2026, 9:00 am

Colourful cathedral and breaking waves – readers’ best photographs

Click here to submit a picture for publication in these online galleries and/or on the Guardian letters page

Published: March 24, 2026, 4:00 pm

Jay-Z on refusing to settle sexual assault lawsuit: ‘I can’t do it, I would die’

The rapper discussed his 2024 sexual assault lawsuit and the Kendrick-Drake beef in a new GQ cover story

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Jay-Z has spoken out about his recent sexual assault lawsuit in a new interview.

The suit alleged that Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs raped a a 13-year-old girl at a party in 2000. Combs and Jay-Z denied all allegations after the lawsuit was filed in late 2024, and the case was voluntarily dismissed in February 2025.

Published: March 24, 2026, 3:01 pm

Dario Fo at 100: a deliriously funny playwright with a deadly serious purpose

The great Italian entertainer’s plays, such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist, have not lost their power to make audiences roar with laughter while confronting injustice

In Britain we tend to separate political and popular theatre. The genius of Dario Fo, who was born 100 years ago on Tuesday, is that he brought them together in his multiple roles as dramatist, actor, director and designer. Along with his wife, Franca Rame, he took satire to the people and in plays such as Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay! he achieved a global reach that justly earned him the Nobel prize for literature in 1997.

You could say that protest and performance were in his genes. His father was a stationmaster and part-time actor whom he joined in wartime resistance to the Nazis in northern Italy, helping to smuggle Allied soldiers across the border to Switzerland. He became famous, however, in 1962 when he and his wife fronted a weekly TV variety show that attracted huge audiences: an engagement that was abruptly ended when they refused to accept censors’ cuts.

Published: March 24, 2026, 5:00 am

‘I’d smoke Biscoff if I could’: how a little Belgian biscuit became a social media sensation

Biscoff-based recipes are breaking the internet – everything from cheesecakes and milkshakes to prawn dishes and salads. A few traditionalists are even enjoying the biscuits on their own. What’s behind this sweet success story?

Around 15 years ago, Ashley Markle was admitted into a secret world, introduced to the treasures of an exclusive supply chain. She was staying at her aunt’s house and, one morning, when her aunt made her a coffee, she placed a little plastic-wrapped biscuit on the side. “I’d never seen them before,” says Markle. She bit into it: “It was a warm flavour that I’d never really had in a cookie. I’m like, what is this?”

Her aunt had discovered the small, gently spiced Biscoff biscuits as an airline snack. She loved them so much that she contacted the maker, Belgian company Lotus, and asked them to ship a box to her in the US. At that time, says Markle, “I think she was the only person who actually had them in her home.” But, as we all know, the world changes rapidly. Last year, Biscoff was the fastest-growing biscuit brand in the US.

Published: March 24, 2026, 10:00 am

Holy parades and earthly pleasures in Spain: Easter in Granada

The ancient city – with its gardens, hammams and Moorish architecture – comes alive in spring and its Holy Week processions are among the most authentic in Andalucía

As I turned the corner on a narrow, cobbled street in Granada, I felt as if I had stumbled upon a slightly sinister re-enactment society. Mysterious men dressed in white robes and tall, conical, face-covering hats with slits for their eyes were followed by women in black dresses and mantillas, holding pillar candles and crosses, then children wearing caped cloaks, carrying baskets of prayer cards.

It was indeed a re-enactment of sorts, but deeply rooted in Catholicism, representing the Passion of Christ, staged during Holy Week (Semana Santa), which runs from 29 March to 5 April this year. Easter processions are held across the country, but this Andalucían city hosts one of the most authentic in Spain.

Published: March 25, 2026, 7:00 am

Move over, pistachio – it’s pecan time! The food trends hotlist

What’s cooking and what’s past its best-before date, from air fryers to hot honey, and doner kebabs to CBD

Intercultural cuisines
From Indo-Chinese and Taiwanese-Tex Mex, to Viet-Cajun and Cape-Malay, brace your tastebuds for culinary cultures colliding in the most delicious ways.

Published: March 24, 2026, 10:00 am

Houseplant hacks: are repotting mats a waste of money?

I think they are worth the spend – they make plant care a more relaxing experience

The problem
Repotting indoors is always so much messier than we imagine. Weeks later, you’ll find compost on the floor and grit in the skirting boards, and one rogue perlite bead will impale itself in your bare foot. Newspapers slip, bin bags tear, and if you rent or have carpet, the fear of a spilt bag of soil is real. Meet the humble repotting mat. It looks simple, but is it effective?

The hack
A repotting mat is a foldable sheet of waterproof fabric with poppers at the corners. Snap them together, and you get a plant care station.

Published: March 24, 2026, 10:00 am

The ‘self-deportee’ hounded out of the US to Mexico: ‘There are days when I feel literally insane’

Abel Ortiz lived in LA since he was a newborn. The Guardian filmed him as he left after 38 years. Now, we catch up with him in Mexico City, fired up and grieving in his new life

• Watch: Abel leaves LA is an original Guardian Documentary that follows Abel’s last week in the United States

A couple of weekends ago, as dusk was falling over the Escandón neighbourhood of Mexico City, Abel Ortiz was startled by the sound of two American women yelling at each other on the street outside his apartment.

They were nose to nose, screaming in English while bemused Mexicans looked on.

Published: March 24, 2026, 11:00 am

Airbnb in firing line as Cape Town’s housing crisis catches up with middle class

Social media full of complaints about digital nomads, while waiting list for social housing gets longer

Earlier this month, graffiti appeared on the promenade in Sea Point, on Cape Town’s wealthy Atlantic Seaboard: “Digital nomads go home! Now!”

Social media is full of complaints about the abundance of American and German accents, foreign property buyers, and properties being listed on Airbnb, all of which are being blamed for soaring housing costs.

Published: March 24, 2026, 9:21 am

Airstrikes, rockets and fields of mustard: photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Published: March 24, 2026, 1:45 pm