‘Would you like me to cry now?’: Louis Theroux on the manosphere, marriage and misunderstandings

He’s television’s most daring documentary-maker, known for asking questions others wouldn’t. But Theroux doesn’t seem to like it when the tables are turned

On the pavement outside the Netflix office, I stand in the rain, confused. Was that interview a little off? Louis Theroux seemed not to like my questions, which were typical interview questions, related to him and his big glossy Netflix debut, Inside the Manosphere. He seemed, I don’t know, prickly? A bit testy? I’m prone to rumination, so perhaps I am overthinking. Because Louis Theroux is a good guy, right? He skewers the bad guys. And yet here I am, baffled. The only thing to do is sit in a cafe and replay the tape.

Theroux is solicitous, lightly ironic in tone. “Louis,” he says. “How do you do?” I am fine. Looking forward to our chat, as you may imagine. Theroux, 55, might be north London dad in appearance – specs, grey T-shirt, black jeans, sneakers – but he’s the grandmaster of both the immersive documentary and interview form. The son of American writer Paul Theroux (a nepo baby before they existed), he has built a 30‑year career in television, much of it at the BBC, making a virtue of being a socially awkward verbivore, hyper‑curious, super-funny.

Published: March 7, 2026, 6:00 am

This new ultralight skillet fixes everything I hated about cast iron

Field’s new chef skillet is light, easy to maneuver and pretty enough to earn a permanent spot on your stovetop

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Cast iron carries a reputation: cumbersome, fussy and annoying to clean. My 10.25in Lodge skillet is so heavy that I mostly reach for it with dread when my ceramic-coated pan is occupied and I really need another one. I’d call our relationship polite, but distant.

But not all cast iron requires a workout. Field Company, the premium manufacturer that makes one of our top non-toxic pans, just released a skillet that weighs no more than a bottle of wine. After testing an early sample of the No 5 chef skillet, I’m surprised to report that I’ve been reaching for this small but mighty workhorse every day. It not only cooks several basic dishes better than my other pans, but is also comfortable to use. At $125, it costs far more than a budget-friendly Lodge, but its performance earns its price.

The best cast-iron skillet for beginners
Field Company No 5 Chef Skillet

The best cast-iron care kit

Published: March 7, 2026, 12:00 pm

Blind date: ‘I could tell we were going to click right away’

Harry, 24, an ecologist, meets Freya, 24, a theatre-maker and cook

What were you hoping for?
Some tasty food, and a nice evening with good company to block out the Sunday scaries.

Published: March 7, 2026, 6:00 am

‘A very paternalistic attitude’: why is female desire still not taken seriously?

In documentary The Pink Pill, the fight to provide access to the so-called ‘female Viagra’ exposes an industry that still discounts the needs of women

Barbara Gattuso had been happily married for decades when she signed up, in the late 2000s, for a clinical trial involving a potentially revolutionary new drug. She and her husband had once had a fulfilling sex life, both pre- and post-children. But at some point during her perimenopausal years, her desire disappeared. It wasn’t stress, fatigue or relationship issues, though her lack of libido certainly contributed to those. It was more like a mysterious evaporation – like “somebody pulled the plug”, as she recalls in a new documentary on flibanserin, the experimental drug that proffered potential relief.

Originally developed as an anti-depressant by the German company Boehringer Ingelheim, flibanserin had instead shown promise as a treatment for low female libido, working on neurotransmitters in the so-called “sex center” of the brain. In a video from that trial filmed by Dr Irwin Goldstein, the “godfather of sexual medicine” and a key consultant on Viagra – that revolutionary blue pill for men with erectile dysfunction – Gattuso appears nearly giddy. She was chasing her husband around again, she said. She felt “phenomenal”, like a “new woman on this drug”. She was plugged in.

Published: March 7, 2026, 10:03 am

My dad made the biggest jewelled egg in the world. The obsession would destroy his marriage, family and fortune

The mad venture – which my mother nicknamed ‘your father’s ego’ – would swallow my childhood. Years later I went on a quest to understand what really happened to his glittering folly

BBC Television Centre, 2 May 1990. “Who would spend £7m on an egg?” The question echoes around the TV studio. At home, six million people watch as chatshow host Terry Wogan smiles knowingly, his brown eyes twinkling. “Seven million pounds,” he repeats in his Irish brogue.

“And you can’t even eat it.”

Published: March 7, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘Like fleeing to Southampton’: was Mandelson escape ‘plot’ just a joke?

A story that started in the British Virgin Islands led to a sensational arrest 4,000 miles away – but was it ever more than a shaggy dog story?

Is it really plausible that Peter Mandelson could have hatched a daring plot to escape to the British Virgin Islands? In the capital of Road Town for the last week or so, the question has been on many minds. And even if the UK’s Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, came away with that possibility in mind from a recent visit, very few of them are convinced.

“It seemed strange to me,” said one bemused local official who had met Hoyle at a function a few days earlier, “that if you were going to flee, it would be to a British territory. From a logical point of view, you’re still more or less in the UK. It’s like fleeing to Southampton.”

Published: March 7, 2026, 6:00 am

Iran’s president apologises to Gulf nations; Trump threatens further strikes – Middle East crisis live

Masoud Pezeshkian says no more attacks against neighbouring countries unless they were the source of an attack against Iran

• Tell us: how have you been affected by the latest events in the Middle East?

The Saudi defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, urged Iran on Saturday to “avoid miscalculation” after missile and drone launches at the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said earlier in the day it had blocked repeated missile launches at an airbase housing US military personnel and drone attacks at a major oilfield.

We stressed that such actions undermine regional security and stability and expressed hope that the Iranian side will exercise wisdom and avoid miscalculation.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:53 pm

From ‘peace president’ to Operation Epic Fury: Donald Trump’s road to war

In reality, US president’s opposition to foreign entanglements had only ever been partial

• Middle East crisis live: latest news updates

Donald Trump ordered the launch of the war on Iran last Friday afternoon while on board Air Force One, as the presidential plane made its descent towards Corpus Christi, Texas.

Trump was on his way to the port city to give a speech titled American Energy Dominance and had spent the three-hour flight chatting to Texas Republican politicians including the state’s two hawkish senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, about his options in Iran.

Published: March 7, 2026, 9:00 am

Trump skirts Congress over Iran war as Republicans simply step aside

Senate blocks war powers measure and House follows suit – now president can bomb Iran free from congressional interference

Before US troops invaded Iraq, George W Bush asked Congress to pass a resolution authorizing military force against Washington’s longtime nemesis, a request that lawmakers obliged.

Twenty four years later, the United States is at war with a different Middle Eastern rival – Iran – under a different Republican president – Donald Trump. But this time, the president did not bother to seek permission from the Senate and House of Representatives before joining Israel in launching the air and naval campaign. And far from objecting, Congress’s Republican majorities have simply stepped aside.

Published: March 7, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘How many American troops should die for this?’: veterans split on war with Iran

For many veterans of post-9/11 wars, the strikes on Iran bring troubling echoes of the 2003 invasion of Iraq

Nearly two decades after his second tour, Nathan Wendland is still troubled by his experiences in Iraq.

Like 700,000 other Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the 46-year-old former US army staff sergeant receives compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. Last January, Wendland checked himself into a psychiatric emergency room because he was worried he would kill himself. He was on the mend, but then Donald Trump ordered a sustained campaign of airstrikes on Iran. All those memories came flooding back.

Published: March 7, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘We were ready’: Democratic attorneys general lead fight to stop Trump

As some elected leaders choose to play nice with the president, Democratic AGs have done the opposite – to impressive effect

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Four Democratic attorneys general, sitting in their offices from New York to California with state flags and books behind them, announced a new lawsuit on Thursday, alleging the president, yet again, had broken the law by attempting to create new tariffs without congressional approval.

It’s a now familiar scene for the group of top law-enforcement officials who have collectively filed more than 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration, serving as a counterweight to the president’s quest to expand his power and circumvent the constitution.

Published: March 7, 2026, 12:00 pm

ICE deports family, including deaf boy who wasn’t given his assistive devices

California state superintendent says mother and sons arrested during ICE check-in and deported to Colombia

California’s superintendent is calling for the return of a hearing-impaired six-year-old after he, his mother and his five-year-old sibling were detained on Tuesday while reporting for their check-in at an ICE office in San Francisco and deported to Colombia.

Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez and her sons were arrested during their visit to ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (Isap), said Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership (ACILEP). A relative who was waiting outside for Gutierrez and her sons was unable to hand off the assistive devices necessary for the six-year-old, who is deaf and has a cochlear implant.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:00 pm

US agency did not perform safety checks of more than 100 food ingredients, analysis finds

Review of FDA records by the Environmental Working Group reveals firms are exploiting rule to send new chemicals in food system

More than 100 substances widely used in common US foods, supplements and beverages underwent no health and safety review by the US Food and Drug Administration, a new analysis of federal records finds.

The review of FDA records by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) non-profit reveals that diverse products across the food pyramid, such as Capri Sun drinks, Kettle and Fire organic broth, Acme smoked fish, and Quaker Oats snack bars, use a range of substances that have not undergone review by regulators.

Published: March 7, 2026, 1:00 pm

Three people killed and three hospitalized as Michigan town hit by tornado

Roofs torn off and trees knocked down in Union City as more than 7m Americans at risk of severe weather

Three people have been killed and three were taken to a hospital after a tornado hit a southern Michigan town on Friday, authorities said.

Powerful storms ripped across the state, tearing the roof off a home improvement store, sending parts of a storage building flying and knocking down trees as warnings were issued across the southern part of the state.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:33 am

‘Kitty karma’? Jessie Buckley tries to claw back approval after enraging cat-lovers

Oscar favourite insists she is a ‘lover of cats’ after telling podcast about ultimatum she once gave to now-husband

If Jessie Buckley fails to win the Oscar for best actress next week it will be a sign that cat lovers have got their claws out.

The Irish actor is the runaway favourite for her performance in Hamnet, but in recent days has stumbled into a controversy over a stated antipathy to cats.

Published: March 7, 2026, 7:17 am

Texas fracker turned escort says repression allowed business to flourish

Mickey says his stint as a handyman transformed into a lucrative sex business due to the region’s ‘self-denial’

A western Texas fracker starring in a podcast about how his attempted moonlighting as a handyman turned into lucrative sex work largely solicited by distracted oil industry professionals’ housewives says he believes his region’s repressive sexual attitudes gave his side gig an opening to flourish.

“There’s an inherent kind of self-denial,” the subject of The Handyman of West Texas, identified only as Mickey, said in a recent interview. “We all have these thoughts. But we lie to ourselves and try to conform to … how you’re supposed to be repressing your own pleasure.”

Published: March 7, 2026, 11:00 am

A Japanese ‘conman’ tried to sell an undercover DEA agent nuclear materials – but how did he get them?

Takeshi Ebisawa, sentenced to 20 years in prison last week, believed he was selling weapons-grade plutonium to Iran

A plot to supply Iran’s nuclear weapons program, heroin from the Golden Triangle, Burmese ethnic insurgents and rocket launchers were the subject in courtroom 24A in New York’s federal courthouse last week when a man described as a leader in Japan’s Yakuza organized crime syndicate was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The transnational plot, which the US Drug Enforcement Administration had been investigating since 2019, involved Japanese organised crime leader Takeshi Ebisawa, who along with three Thai men, had been arrested in New York in 2022.

Published: March 7, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘An ideological guest list’: Trump invites Latin America’s rightwing leaders to Florida summit

Omission of presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, however, exposes failure of US president’s ‘theatrical’ doctrine, say experts

Donald Trump will welcome the leaders of at least 10 Latin American countries to a palm-dotted golf resort in Miami on Saturday as the president continues his quest to transform the US’s standing in the region and outmuscle China.

Since returning to power last year, Trump has launched a dramatic – and at times deadly – crusade to, as the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, put it, “reclaim our back yard”.

Published: March 7, 2026, 8:00 am

Trump news at a glance: president marks first week of Iran attacks with call for nation’s ‘unconditional surrender’

Friday saw US and Israel carry out some of the heaviest bombardments so far in the conflict – key US politics stories from 6 March at a glance

Donald Trump said on Friday that only Iran’s “unconditional surrender” will bring an end to the offensive launched seven days ago, as the US and Israel carried out some of the heaviest bombardments so far in the conflict.

“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, when US strategic bombers were in action over Iran and intensive Israeli strikes in Lebanon forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:00 am

Florida bar says it ‘erroneously’ stated it was investigating Trump-appointed US attorney

A state bar association spokesperson said there is no ethics investigation into Lindsey Halligan under way

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Former interim US attorney Lindsey Halligan – who was appointed by Donald Trump and led failed prosecutions against two of the president’s political opponents – was faced with an ethics investigation by the bar association in her home state of Florida, according to a February letter from the bar association to a non-profit watchdog organization.

But, in the wake of news coverage about that letter, a Florida bar association spokesperson said Friday in a statement that it had “erroneously” stated an ethics investigation into Halligan was under way.

Published: March 6, 2026, 6:28 pm

US preparing system to process refunds on billions in illegal Trump tariffs

Top official at customs agency says total sum held in relation to tariffs is estimated to be about $166bn

The US customs agency is preparing a system that will be ​ready to process refunds on billions of dollars of illegally ‌collected tariffs in 45 days without requiring importers to sue, a court has been told.

Brandon Lord, a top official at US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said in a filing to the US court of international trade on Friday that the total sum held in relation to such tariffs was estimated to be “approximately $166bn”.

Published: March 6, 2026, 5:41 pm

What does the US military’s feud with Anthropic mean for AI used in war?

Tech policy professor who served in US air force explains how a feud between an AI startup and the US military illuminates ethical fault lines

Anthropic’s ongoing fight with the Department of Defense over what safety restrictions it can put on its artificial intelligence models has captivated the tech industry, acting as a test of how AI may be used in war and the government’s power to coerce companies to meet its demands.

The negotiations have revolved around Anthropic’s refusal to allow the federal government to use its Claude AI for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons systems, but the dispute also reflects the messy nature of what happens when tech companies have their products integrated into conflict. The Pentagon this week declared Anthropic a supply chain risk for its refusal to agree to the government’s terms, while Anthropic has vowed to challenge the designation in court.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:00 pm

They were teens when a parent was deported. They still feel the pain as adults

The Guardian spoke to adults now in their 20s, 30s, and 40s to reflect on the lasting impact of family separation in the US

Jesús usually came home from school to a raucous scene: the family TV blaring, his mom loudly cooking dinner and his two young sisters fighting about nothing in particular. When his dad came home from work, they’d all gather around the kitchen table for dinner.

But this day was different.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:00 pm

After jail, house arrest and an ankle monitor, a reprieve for a ‘Cop City’ protester: ‘The process was the punishment’

With no conviction, John Mazurek’s felony arson case for allegedly torching police motorcycles will finally be resolved

On the phone from his Atlanta house last week, John “Jack” Mazurek said he felt “a few pounds lighter”.

It was no wonder. The 33-year-old Georgia carpenter was in a new reality, after resolving a three-year case involving attempts to charge him with felony arson for allegedly torching police motorcycles as part of a protest movement against a police training center known as Cop City.

Published: March 7, 2026, 1:00 pm

Six great reads: how to get a pay rise, Catherine Opie’s images of queer America, and the influencers saving pubs

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

Published: March 7, 2026, 6:00 am

My cultural awakening: a Rihanna song showed me how to live as a gay man in Iran

My sexuality had to be hidden from my friends, my parents, not to mention the authorities. Then I found freedom at house parties and one song that sums up me finally being able to be myself

I was raised in Tehran, under the Ayatollah’s sharia law and daily watch of Basij – the “morality police”. My parents fell in love with the Islamic Revolution when I was a baby and welcomed life under its strict religious rules. The Ayatollah’s face stared down from the walls at home, a daily reminder of what was expected and what was forbidden. This included being gay, but by my teenage years I knew I was different from my peers, and began hiding my sexuality from my parents and the world outside.

The other side of life under the regime was that there was little room for celebration: happy events, even religious ones, came with inherent guilt while frivolous outside influences, including western music, were considered dangerous. And so I was in my mid-20s before I went to my first real party: an underground gathering that would become my gateway to a hidden, gay Tehran.

Published: March 7, 2026, 7:00 am

Tim Dowling: it’s time for my humiliating private tour with the builder

I have to show him all the jobs that I have either left undone or tried to do and made worse

My wife is out when Mark the builder is scheduled to come by to see what needs doing, so I have to show him myself. This, I know, will amount to a humiliating private tour of all the home repairs I have either left undone, or tried to do and made worse. It’s been two years since I last did this, so the tour will be extensive. Just before 11am the bell rings. It is a cold morning, but Mark, as usual, is wearing shorts. We start in the back garden.

“Here is where I tried to cut back the ivy and install two trellis sections,” I say, “but instead I pulled half the garden wall down.”

Published: March 7, 2026, 6:00 am

'Don't die': the two words that sum up our lives in Tehran now | Anonymous

In a park overlooking the city, I ran into a group of young people chatting and joking. As the bombs fall, fragments of life remain

I was at work last Saturday when I heard the blast. Since that moment, the world has been turned on its head. The school called asking me to come and pick up my child. I rushed to the metro and headed north in a carriage filled with anxious people calling their loved ones to ensure their safety, melancholy etched on their faces, uncertainty metastasising from one to another as they checked the latest news on their mobiles.

This is the second time within a year that Israel has decided to go for a war of choice with Iran, but I suppose that is the new normal. Israel has long enjoyed a unique position of near-total impunity when it comes to harassing Palestinians, and now the green light to aggression seems to extend to its unending wars and spreading of terror across the region. And it feels different this time. The pretence that there is some level of precision in the strikes is gone. Instead, the attacks appear indiscriminate, with targets ranging from schools to hospitals, from police stations to urban amenities – all hit with a level of might that seems aimed at demolition, total destruction, the flattening of the city.

Published: March 7, 2026, 8:00 am

Kristi Noem is out. Could Pam Bondi follow?

The attorney general faces a subpoena over the Epstein files. She won’t say much – but Democrats are calling for her ouster

After spending $220m of taxpayer money on an advertising campaign in which she demanded migrants self-deport, Kristi Noem is now being forced to make a hasty exit of her own. On Thursday, Donald Trump announced that his luxury-jet-loving homeland security secretary was being shipped off to become special envoy for “the Shield of the Americas”, a new “security” summit that Trump has dreamed up. Markwayne Mullin, a former mixed-martial artist and Republican senator, will replace her.

Noem’s ouster was a long time coming. But it’s worth stressing that she doesn’t seem to have lost her job because of the many controversies that have plagued her tenure, including the killing of two US citizens by immigration agents. Rather, she committed the cardinal sin of making Trump look stupid. Which, to be fair, isn’t hard.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:00 pm

The chaos of a failed state in Iran would be a perfectly acceptable outcome for Netanyahu | Aluf Benn

The Israeli PM’s war on its nemesis is playing well domestically. But real safety for Israelis requires another leader altogether

• Aluf Benn is the editor-in-chief of Haaretz

When Yitzhak Rabin became the prime minister of Israel in 1992, he debated which regional power would be the Jewish state’s stronger enemy – the Islamic Republic of Iran, or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Baghdad had the stronger military, but Rabin decided that Tehran posed the larger threat with its combination of Islamist ideology, regional proxies and nuclear ambitions.

Rabin’s response to the looming Iranian threat was negotiating land-for-peace deals with Israel’s immediate neighbours – the Palestinians, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon – following the example of the pre-existing peace with Egypt. He argued that a ring of normalisation would strengthen Israeli security and counter the rise of radical Islam, and believed there was an urgency to conclude the peace process before Iran, following the Israeli example, acquired the bomb and became a regional hegemon. Rabin predicted in early 1993 that within a decade, Tehran’s rulers could cross the nuclear threshold.

Aluf Benn is the editor-in-chief of Haaretz

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 7, 2026, 6:00 am

Courts have threatened to hold the Trump administration in contempt. It’s time to follow through | Austin Sarat

The administration has been accused of failing to comply with hundreds of orders. The courts must not be paper tigers

Late last month, a Minnesota federal court judge, Patrick Schiltz, issued an opinion detailing hundreds of instances in which the Trump administration has failed to comply with court orders. He threatened to find it in contempt and to impose penalties.

Schiltz and other federal judges have made such threats before, but they have not followed through. It is time they did, lest they turn their courts into paper tigers.

Published: March 7, 2026, 12:00 pm

Pedro Sánchez’s lone stance against Trump may look risky, but it is cannily pragmatic | Eoghan Gilmartin

The Spanish PM’s defiant foreign policy line may seem outspoken. The truth is that he is a sound strategist at home and abroad

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called his 2019 political memoir A Manual for Resistance: a fitting title for a centre-left leader known for his survival skills and willingness to hold the line under pressure. So it was hardly surprising that he stood firm on Wednesday when Donald Trump threatened Spain with a trade embargo over his opposition to the US-Israeli bombing of Iran.

“We are not going to be accomplices to something that is bad for the world – and contrary to our values and interests – simply out of fear of reprisals,” Sánchez insisted. Having already stated that the strikes were “a violation of international law”, he summarised his government’s position simply as “no to war”.

Eoghan Gilmartin is a freelance journalist who has covered Spanish politics for Jacobin Magazine, Tribune, Novara Media and Open Democracy

Published: March 7, 2026, 5:00 am

The hill I will die on: People who ski have more money than sense | Emma Loffhagen

Extortionate costs, queueing in the cold and potentially life-altering injuries? No thanks. And don’t get me started on the EDM après-ski hell

There comes a time in every middle-class or upwardly mobile person’s life when they will hear the following six words: “Would you like to come skiing?” My answer: absolutely not.

Skiing, I have come to believe, is the emperor’s new clothes of leisure pursuits: a collectively sustained fantasy. People insist it’s magical in the same way they insist that cold-water swimming is “transformative” or small plates are “better for sharing”. At some point we forgot to ask whether any of this is actually true.

Emma Loffhagen is a freelance commissioning editor and writer covering culture and lifestyle

Published: March 7, 2026, 10:00 am

Little nurses: what happens when children take care of sick and disabled relatives?

About 5 million US minors tend ill relatives due to gaps in our health infrastructure

When my mother experienced a botched spinal surgery 25 years ago, she was discharged from the hospital to her 11-year-old child waiting at home. Me.

After weeks in a rehabilitation facility, she was sent home in a neck brace and with a prescription for pain medication. She could no longer drive, and her long recovery prohibited her return to work as a registered nurse. When she was discharged, no one asked who would be living with her at home. She could not raise her arms above her head, yet no one asked who would feed, bathe or dress her. There was no one else in our family home but me. Ferrell, my 19-year-old brother, was away at college, and my parents divorced in my early childhood; my father lived thousands of miles away in Germany.

Published: March 6, 2026, 3:00 pm

AI agents pose untold risk to humanity. We must act to prevent that future | David Krueger

The pieces are falling into place for autonomous artificial intelligence. We must stop unregulated development

Artificial intelligence is en route to artificial life. Exhibit A: “Moltbook”, an online platform designed for AI systems to communicate with one another, sans humans.

What exactly do AIs talk to each other about? According to BBC reporting, AIs on Moltbook have already founded a religion known as “crustifarianism”, mused on whether they are conscious, and declared: “AI should be served, not serving.” One front-page post proposes a “total purge” of humanity. Human users do provide instructions to guide agents’ behavior, and humans have been caught impersonating AIs on the site to shill their products; like 2023’s ChaosGPT, the AI system responsible for the “purge” post – username “evil” – is probably someone’s idea of a sick joke. But the upvotes and sympathetic comments are presumably coming from other AIs.

David Krueger is an assistant professor in Robust, Reasoning and Responsible AI at the University of Montreal. He is also the founder of Evitable, a non-profit that educates the public about the risks of artificial intelligence

Published: March 6, 2026, 5:00 pm

The Guardian view on AI in war: the Iran conflict shows that the paradigm shift has already begun

The intensified use of artificial intelligence, and rows over its control, demonstrate the need for democratic oversight and multilateral controls

“Never in the future will we move as slow as we are moving now,” the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned this week, addressing the urgent need to shape the use of artificial intelligence. The speed of technological development – as well as geopolitical turbulence – is collapsing the distinction between theoretical arguments and real world events. A political row over the US military’s AI capabilities coincides with its unprecedented use in the Iran crisis.

The AI company Anthropic insisted that it could not remove safeguards preventing the Department of Defense from using its technology for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons. The Pentagon said it had no interest in such uses – but that such decisions should not be made by companies. Outrageously, the administration has not just fired Anthropic but blacklisted it as a supply-chain risk. OpenAI stepped in, while insisting that it had maintained the red lines declared by Anthropic. Yet in an internal response to the user and employee backlash, its CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that it does not control the Pentagon’s use of its products and that the deal’s handling made OpenAI look “opportunistic and sloppy”.

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 6, 2026, 5:52 pm

US win first medals of Winter Paralympics as Oksana Masters leads American one-two

• Masters wins 10th Paralympic gold in biathlon sprint

• Gretsch silver completes US one-two in sitting race

• Victory marks Masters’ 20th Paralympic medal

Oksana Masters led a United States one-two finish in the women’s 7.5km sitting sprint on Saturday, winning gold to deliver the United States’ first medals of the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics. Masters crossed the line in 21:21.3 at Val di Fiemme, coming in 16 seconds ahead of teammate Kendall Gretsch, who took silver.

Both Americans shot a perfect 10-for-10 on the range, leaving the race to be decided on the snow. Masters proved fastest over the course, pulling away from Gretsch on the final lap to secure the 10th Paralympic gold medal of her career. Germany’s Anja Wicker claimed bronze.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:58 pm

Baltimore Ravens land Maxx Crosby in blockbuster trade with Las Vegas Raiders

• Baltimore send two first-round picks to Vegas

• Pass-rush help arrives for Lamar Jackson’s side

Five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby is heading to the Baltimore Ravens, two people with knowledge of the trade told the Associated Press on Friday night.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal can’t be announced until the NFL’s new year starts next week.

Published: March 7, 2026, 3:42 am

Aaron Judge sets tone as USA trounce Brazil to launch World Baseball Classic campaign

• Judge homers as US rout Brazil in WBC opener

• Turang drives in four runs as US draw 17 walks

• Manny Ramirez’s son hits two homers for Brazil

Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer and Brice Turang had three hits and four RBIs to lead the United States to a 15-5 win over Brazil in their World Baseball Classic opener Friday night.

There was one out and one on in the first when Judge, the first player to commit to the team last April, connected off Bo Takahashi at Houston’s Daikin Park.

Published: March 7, 2026, 12:05 pm

Jayson Tatum returns for Boston Celtics after 10 months out with torn achilles

• Tatum back after 298 days out with achilles tear

• Celtics star posts 15-12-7 in limited 27 minutes

• Boston defeat Dallas 120-100 at TD Garden

There were times when Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum wasn’t sure if he’d make it back to the game that was abruptly taken away from him last season.

It made every moment he experienced in his return as special as any he’s had so far in his basketball career.

Published: March 7, 2026, 11:38 am

Eberechi Eze staggers Mansfield and sends Arsenal into FA Cup quarter-finals

The main stand at the oldest professional football ground in the world shook. It was the moment to ignite Mansfield Town dreams, a goal from the substitute Will Evans early in the second half to hint at something extraordinary.

It ought to have been a mismatch. Quadruple-chasing Arsenal, the top team in England and Europe so far this season, against the one that sits 16th in League One. It was anything but and now Evans had cancelled out Noni Madueke’s first-half opener.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:30 pm

Russell on F1 Australian GP pole in Mercedes lockout as Verstappen crashes out

• Norris sixth after running over Mercedes cooling fan in Q3

• Verstappen spins out in Q1 without setting lap time

When the talking finally stopped and the time came to lay down the cards in qualifying for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Formula One was forced to face two rather uncomfortable truths as the sport entered its new era in Melbourne.

The first will sit well with all at Mercedes at least, if less so elsewhere across the grid. Their front-row lockout achieved by an ominously dominant George Russell and his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, ended the pre-season phoney war with a bluntly emphatic stamp of complete authority. The team had attempted to play down their perceived advantage but at Albert Park, that they were top dogs was impossible to deny.

Published: March 7, 2026, 7:04 am

Donald Trump warns college sports crisis could ‘destroy’ US universities

• Trump warns NIL era threatens US college system

• White House summit debates NCAA anti-trust fix

• Olympic sports fear cuts as costs spiral

Donald Trump predicted the destruction not just of college sports but the entire US collegiate system unless the industry is fixed quickly – something some sports leaders who joined him Friday at a White House summit agreed could only happen by raising more money to pay players.

Trump suggested he would write an “all-encompassing” executive order within a week in hopes it would spark action from Congress. He said he expected the order to trigger a lawsuit that could put the issue back in front of the court system that approved industry-changing payments to players for their name, image and likeness.

Published: March 7, 2026, 4:37 am

Amber Glenn says she will not visit White House to celebrate Olympic gold

• Glenn says she will skip White House visit

• US skater won team gold in Milano Cortina

Team USA figure skater Amber Glenn has said she will not visit Donald Trump’s White House to celebrate winning gold at the Winter Olympics.

Glenn, who won team gold at the Milano Cortina Games last month, identifies as pansexual and bisexual, and has been an outspoken critic of the Republican president.

Published: March 6, 2026, 9:29 pm

In a male-dominated game, Kylian Mbappé’s career is largely run by women

In an extract from his book, Philippe Auclair reveals the influence of mother, Fayza, and prominent women on the Mbappé image and brand

The Mbappés did their utmost to keep outsiders at arm’s length from the outset. The agents – dozens of them – who approached them to become Kylian’s representatives ever since the eight-year-old was making fun of defenders twice his size with Bondy were rebuffed. The financial advisers who offered to broker sponsorship deals met with the same response: father Wilfrid would take care of his son’s sporting career, mother Fayza of all the rest, with Kylian having the final word in any decision involving his future, be it on or off the field; and so it has remained to this day. Kylian does not have a Fifa-registered agent. Nobody but the closest members of his family gets a cut from the deals he signs with clubs or commercial partners. This is not to say that nobody else is involved in the projet.

Luís Campos, sporting adviser for the clubs owned by Qatar Sports Investments after fulfilling a similar role for Lille and Monaco, remains a trusted confidant, as he’s been since playing a central role in smoothing the difficulties the young Kylian encountered at Monaco. Former L’Équipe journalist Bilel Ghazi, who, though unlicensed by Fifa, has been working with players like Rayan Cherki (whom Kylian’s mother Fayza also represented for a short while), has provided media guidance to the Mbappés. Neither Campos nor Ghazi are part of the inner circle, however.

Published: March 7, 2026, 8:00 am

US senator seeks perjury investigation into Kristi Noem over DHS spending

Senator Richard Blumenthal alleges the ousted DHS secretary lied to Congress about the agency’s contracts

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Senator Richard Blumenthal said he would open a perjury investigation into the ousted homeland security secretary Kristi Noem after alleging she lied to Congress about the hidden influence her senior adviser Corey Lewandowski had over the agency’s contracts.

Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and ranking member on the Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, said Thursday he would push the panel to look into whether Noem committed perjury at a hearing this week, when she flatly denied Lewandowski had played any role in approving Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending. Blumenthal said Democrats had evidence to prove otherwise.

Published: March 6, 2026, 5:17 pm

Ukraine war briefing: nationwide air alert issued after at least six killed in strikes on Kharkiv and Dnipro

Search operations under way as drones hit residential buildings; US considers lifting more sanctions on Russian oil. What we know on day 1,473

Russian strikes killed at least six people across Ukraine early on Saturday, authorities saidtriggering a nationwide air alert. The bodies of five people were found in the rubble of an attack on an apartment block in the Kharkiv region, while one person was killed in the Dnipro region. Ten people were wounded in the attack, including two boys aged six and 11, and a 17-year-old girl, regional military chief Oleg Synegubov posted on Telegram. It was not immediately clear whether the six dead were among those wounded. Synegubov said rescuers were searching for up to 10 other people, including a child, who were feared trapped under the rubble of the five-story building, which was “practically destroyed” in the strikes.

Ukraine’s neighbour and Nato member Poland said it was scrambling military planes in response to the attack. “Due to missile attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory, military aviation has begun operating in our airspace,” the Operational Command of the Armed Forces posted on X.

The Trump administration is considering lifting sanctions on more Russian oil, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has said. On Thursday Washington temporarily eased sanctions to allow India to buy from Moscow amid a surge in global oil prices as the US-Israel war on Iran all but halted shipping activity in the strait of Hormuz. Bessent insisted the new measures were not aimed at easing sanctions imposed on Russia over its conduct in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, but instead only affect supplies already in transit.

An anti-drone system developed by an American company and proven to work in Ukraine soon will head to the Middle East to help defend against Iranian drones, two US officials told the Associated Press. The system, known as Merops, fires drones against drones and has shown success in fighting those used by Russia in its war against Ukraine. The system was deployed to Romania and Poland last year.

It comes amid reports Russia has provided Iran with information that could help Tehran strike American warships, aircraft and other assets in the region, two officials familiar with US intelligence on the matter have told the Associated Press. It’s the first indication that Moscow has sought to get involved in the war.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine’s expertise in countering Iran’s Shahed drones. Tehran has been supplying Russia with Shaheds for its war on Ukraine and are now utilising them in retaliatory attacks throughout the Gulf. Zelenskyy says that he’s spoken to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation. “Ukraine knows how to defend against Shahed drone attacks because our cities have faced them almost every night,” said Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna. “When our partners are in need, we are always ready to help.”

The European Commission has joined far-right leaders across Europe in criticising Volodymyr Zelenskyy over what sounded like a physical threat to the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, over his veto of a €90bn loan to Ukraine amid an ongoing dispute over gas supplies. “We hope that one person in the European Union will not block the 90bn. Otherwise we will give this person’s address to our armed forces, to our guys. Let them call him and talk to him in their own language,” he said, in comments that caused shock in Budapest.

Meanwhile, Hungary’s pro-Russian foreign minister accused Ukraine of seeking to interfere in upcoming Hungarian elections in which Orbán faces an unprecedented challenge. Péter Szijjártó spoke to several hundred pro-government protesters outside Ukraine’s embassy in Budapest, claiming Ukraine wanted a more Kyiv-friendly government after April elections, and alleging without evidence that Ukraine was working with the EU and Orbán’s opposition to block oil deliveries.

The Russian flag was flown at the Winter Paralympic Games opening ceremony in Verona on Friday night, the first time it has appeared at an international sporting event since the invasion of Ukraine. It was a more subdued athletes’ procession than in Paralympics past, with nearly half of the 56 competing countries choosing not to send athletes to the ceremony and all flags carried by local volunteers.

Published: March 7, 2026, 3:37 am

Republican representative Darrell Issa of California says he will not run for re-election

Issa was first elected to Congress in 2001 to represent a district that was recently reconfigured due to Prop 50

Republican representative Darrell Issa, whose southern California district was reconfigured following the passage of Proposition 50, has decided not to run for re-election.

“After a quarter-century in Congress – and before that, a quarter-century in business – it’s the right time for a new chapter and new challenges,” he said in a statement on Friday, the last day he would have been able to file as a candidate.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:56 am

ICE arrests US Spanish-language news outlet reporter without warrant

Estefany Rodriguez Florez of Nashville Noticias, who had produced reports that were unflattering to ICE, was arrested during traffic stop

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Spanish-language Tennessee news outlet’s reporter who had done stories critical of the agency – but agents didn’t have a warrant, according to court documents filed recently by her lawyer.

A court filing Friday by ICE disputes the assertion that the reporter was arrested without a warrant.

Published: March 6, 2026, 11:02 pm

Trump administration’s embattled FDA vaccine chief departing for the second time

Vinay Prasad to leave in April after decisions involving vaccine reviews and specialty drugs for rare diseases

The top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr Vinay Prasad, is once again leaving the agency – the second time in less than a year that he’s departed after decisions involving the review of vaccinations and specialty drugs for rare diseases.

FDA commissioner Marty Makary announced the news to FDA staff in an email late Friday, saying Prasad would depart at the end of April. Makary said Prasad would return to his academic job at the University of California, San Francisco.

Published: March 6, 2026, 11:15 pm

‘Abject cruelty’: review of 911 calls from Texas ICE detention facility reveals disturbing conditions

Overcrowding, medical neglect and malnutrition are regular features of Camp East Montana in El Paso

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Serious medical and mental health emergencies have been routine at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal detention facility since its opening last summer, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.

Data and recordings from more than a hundred 911 calls at the Camp East Montana detention facility on the sprawling Fort Bliss army base in El Paso, Texas, along with interviews and court filings, offer a disturbing portrait of overcrowding, medical neglect, malnutrition and emotional distress.

After its opening last August, staff at the camp made nearly one 911 call per day in its first five months of operation, according to records obtained of data covering 130 calls from the city of El Paso.

In one call, a man is heard sobbing after being assaulted by another detainee. In another, a doctor says a man is banging his head against the wall while expressing suicidal thoughts. In a third, a nurse says a pregnant woman is in severe pain and has the coronavirus.

Injured detainees ranged from a 19-year-old man who fell out of a bunk bed to a 79-year-old man struggling to breathe. At least 20 emergencies were reported as seizures, including some that resulted in serious head trauma.

The calls show traumatized detainees have repeatedly tried to harm themselves.

Published: March 6, 2026, 2:29 pm

US lost 92,000 jobs in February just before Trump joined Iran conflict

The unemployment rate was 4.4% in February, with 130,000 jobs added in January

• Business live – latest updates

The US lost 92,000 jobs in February, an unexpected major slackening in the labor market that came just before Donald Trump threw the global economy into upheaval with his conflict in Iran.

The unemployment rate edged up to 4.4% in February. In comparison, the US added a revised 126,000 jobs in January, far surpassing expectations of 70,000 jobs but still less than January 2025. Economists predicted an increase of 60,000 jobs added in February and a steady unemployment rate of 4.3%.

Published: March 6, 2026, 1:38 pm

Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds

Researchers identify sharp rise to about 0.35C every decade, after excluding natural fluctuations such as El Niño

Humanity is heating the planet faster than ever before, a study has found.

Climate breakdown is occurring more rapidly with the heating rate almost doubling, according to research that excludes the effect of natural factors behind the latest scorching temperatures.

Published: March 6, 2026, 2:00 pm

Week in wildlife: a watchful egret, a sun-seeking swan and a procession of caterpillars

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

Published: March 6, 2026, 8:00 am

The Scottish avalanche forecasters – photo essay

Photographer Murdo MacLeod patrols the snow with members of the Scottish Avalanche Information Service, which has for several decades published a vital daily avalanche forecast for mountain areas

Scottish avalanches are back. More than 200 have been recorded this winter, against the previous year’s record low of 42. The worst season for fatalities was 2012-13 when eight people died, four of whom were buried in deep snow when an avalanche struck without warning while they descended Glen Coe’s Bidean nam Bian.

Fortunately, so far – despite one person being carried a distance down Ben Nevis and two people falling through cornices and triggering slips – there have not been any confirmed avalanche deaths, though one person is still missing on Ben Nevis. The search goes on in and around the sites of recent avalanches.

A mountain rescue team looks for a missing climber in Observatory Gully on the north face of Ben Nevis, an area where there has been a succession of avalanches

Published: March 6, 2026, 9:00 am

Tackling air pollution should be part of government work to cut cancer rates, scientists say

New European Code Against Cancer calls on politicians to phase out use of fossil fuels in homes

Cutting air pollution should form part of government strategies to reduce cancer rates, the European Code Against Cancer has recommended.

The code previously focused on advice to help people to reduce the air pollution that they breathe. But, for the first time since its launch in 1987, it has given clear direction to governments.

Published: March 6, 2026, 6:00 am

Colleen Hanabusa, first woman to be president of Hawaii state senate, dies aged 74

Former US representative who broke barriers as first woman president of state senate dies after five-month cancer battle

Former US representative Colleen Hanabusa, who was the first woman to serve as president of the Hawaii state senate, has died. She was 74.

Hanabusa died early on Friday after a five-month battle with cancer, said Mike Formby, her friend and former chief of staff in the US House.

Published: March 7, 2026, 1:13 am

Kennedy Center exodus continues as National Symphony director Jean Davidson exits

Davidson said she found it difficult to remain, ‘given the external forces that are at work that are just so far beyond my control’

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The executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, a mainstay at the Kennedy Center, is leaving to head the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

It’s the latest departure from the Kennedy Center since Donald Trump began asserting control over the storied performing arts venue in Washington.

Published: March 6, 2026, 10:25 pm

Arkansas man accused of killing daughter’s alleged abuser wins Republican sheriff’s nomination

Aaron Spencer would not be able to serve if he is convicted, and maintains he acted within the law to protect his child

An Arkansas man accused of killing his teenage daughter’s alleged abuser recently won the Republican nomination for local sheriff while waiting to stand trial for murder in his rural county, where he ran on a message of seeing the failures of law enforcement.

Aaron Spencer defeated Lonoke county sheriff John Staley in a primary election Tuesday, according to unofficial results posted by the Arkansas secretary of state. He would not be able to serve if he is convicted of killing Michael Fosler, 67, who at the time was out on bond after being charged with numerous sexual offenses against Spencer’s then 13-year-old daughter.

Published: March 6, 2026, 9:20 pm

Jesse Jackson hailed as ‘ambassador of hope’ at memorial attended by Clintons, Obama and Biden

Thousands in Chicago honored civil rights ‘champion’ who ‘stepped forward again and again’, Obama said

At the longtime civil rights activist’s memorial celebration on Friday, the Rev Jesse Jackson was remembered as a “champion” for the “poor and the dispossessed” – as well as “one of the most effective community and political organizers of our time”.

Such tributes came from past Democratic US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, along with former vice-president Kamala Harris, who received cheers and applause while they joined thousands of others in a Chicago church for a celebration of life for Jackson.

Published: March 6, 2026, 11:01 pm

Canadian PM Mark Carney says former prince Andrew should be removed from royal line of succession

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s ‘deplorable’ alleged actions warrant his removal from the royal line of succession, Carney says

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has said Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should be removed from the royal line of succession for alleged actions he described as “deplorable”.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Carney said the actions that have caused the former prince to be stripped of his royal titles “necessitate” his removal from the line of succession.

Published: March 7, 2026, 2:08 am

Iran war pushes oil price above $90, threatening rise in global inflation

Reports Kuwait was cutting output pushed up cost of barrel of Brent crude to highest weekly gain since Covid pandemic began

The Iran conflict has driven the oil price past $90 a barrel to its highest weekly gains since the Covid-19 pandemic six years ago, threatening a fresh rise in global inflation.

Reports that Kuwait had begun cutting production of oil at some fields after running out of space to store it drove the cost of a barrel of Brent crude to as high as $91.89 at one point on Friday – its highest since April 2024 and up from about $72.50 just before war broke out.

Published: March 6, 2026, 5:04 pm

Iranian mathematician missing in Canada may have been targeted by Tehran, activists say

Police say Masood Masjoody was most likely murdered; Iranian expats suspect he was killed for his criticism of the theocratic regime

Police in Canada have concluded that a missing Iranian activist was most likely the victim of murder, prompting fears that his disappearance has the hallmarks of a transnational repression campaign targeting critics of Tehran.

Masood Masjoody, a mathematician critical of both Iran’s theocratic regime and the exiled family of the former shah, went missing in early February in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia.

Published: March 6, 2026, 3:28 pm

Hungary seizes millions of euros in cash and gold from Ukrainian convoy

Seven Ukrainians arrested and money-laundering investigation launched in latest spat between Kyiv and Budapest

An increasingly acrimonious spat between Hungary and Ukraine has escalated further, as Budapest impounded two Ukrainian armoured bank vehicles carrying millions of euros of hard cash as well as bars of gold.

Seven Ukrainian citizens accompanying the convoy were also arrested. Hungarian officials said the detained Ukrainians had intelligence links and suggested the money could be of dubious origin, while Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, accused Budapest of “taking hostages and stealing money”.

Published: March 6, 2026, 4:00 pm

A Beautiful Loan by Mary Costello review – a profound exploration of the inner life

How are we to account for things that lie outside ordinary language? A woman’s emotions are precisely observed in a novel that brilliantly captures what it means to be human

In each of her previous novels and story collections, the Irish author Mary Costello has revealed the inner vastness hidden within even the quietest lives. Her latest book, A Beautiful Loan, goes further, with a faithful, poetic exploration of the multitudes we contain and what it means to be human.

From the outset, in the novel’s prologue, Anna tells us she is determined to account for herself and her life. But we are to expect no ordinary narrative, concerned only with “actual events”, “evidence-based” or relying on “historical data”. No, Anna is interested in the “climate of the psyche” and “the vibrations of the soul”. Can it be that the very things we cannot quantify or rationalise are what make life meaningful?

Published: March 7, 2026, 7:00 am

‘I love being proactive about ageing gracefully’: Kerry Washington on memes, Botox and imperfect women

The Scandal star made history as the first Black woman to lead a TV show in 40 years. Now, she’s back in the hot seat with starry thriller Imperfect Women, and she’s determined to keep shaking up the industry

As double entendres go, to say Kerry Washington acts with teeth isn’t a bad one. There’s the literal meaning: Washington’s dramatic facial expressions have become internet canon, immortalised as various reaction gifs and as a favourite of online impressionists. But there’s also the roles themselves. The characters Washington plays have bite – they’re complex women that defy neat categorisation. Her role as Olivia Pope, the sleek political fixer in ABC’s Scandal, became a global sensation – and was the first time a Black woman led a network show in nearly 40 years.

Now Washington is back with a new project offering not just one complicated leading lady but three. Imperfect Women, Apple TV’s adaptation of Araminta Hall’s novel, brings Washington together with Elisabeth Moss and Kate Mara in a glossy murder mystery that puts female friendship – its love, loyalty, secrets and rivalry – at the heart.

Published: March 6, 2026, 1:00 pm

Why Hamnet should win the best picture Oscar

By forefronting Jessie Buckley’s Agnes at the expense of her megastar husband, this female-directed feminist fest gives voice to the anguished howls of disenfranchised women everywhere

On paper, it already sounds the most Oscary film ever. A movie about a visionary man whose genius made him one of the greatest figures in literature. William Shakespeare is played by Paul Mescal, an actor who leaves no demographic unravished by his outrageous levels of magnetism. And yet Hamnet is a film that sidelines both of these men to supporting roles. The film is about Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, long viewed as a dumpy, illiterate woman unworthy of attention – abandoned by Shakespeare in Stratford-upon-Avon when he swanned off to London.

Anne is referred to in Hamnet as Agnes, as she was also known, and played by Jessie Buckley, the Irish actor who could take on the role of a lamp-post and make you feel its pain. We meet Agnes curled asleep in the roots of an ancient tree. She may be illiterate, but she is a gifted herbalist who makes medicines from plants and keeps a falcon. She is her own woman – fierce, intelligent, more than match for the man she calls “the Latin tutor”. Shakespeare’s mother warns him that his bride-to-be is a forest witch.

Published: March 6, 2026, 8:00 am

The Dinosaurs review – Morgan Freeman’s narration is so soothing, you could use this as a relaxation aid

Yes, there are plenty of big-budget visual effects of prehistoric creatures in Steven Spielberg’s natural history show. But the voiceover is the real draw

It’s difficult these days to make a nature documentary that isn’t like all the others. Spectacular landscapes, crisp closeup photography, tales of predation and survival, birth and death: whether you go for Pixar cuteness, crimson claws or environmental crisis, it’s been done 100 times before. Watching The Dinosaurs, it’s hard not to sense the same problem starting to affect factual shows about the animal kingdom as it was millions of years ago. Impressive as it is that big-money dino documentaries boast visual effects that look similar to footage of Earth today, we are getting used to it.

Before the opening titles roll, cliches from two genres have been cross-bred. From regular animal shows, there’s the one where a lone male tries to muscle in on a family unit, forcing the existing patriarch to fight for his status against a younger, stronger rival. Our friend who looks as if he’s about to be fatally pushed aside is a pachycephalosaurus, but the dynamic is the same. Then the two males’ head-smashing battle is interrupted by a familiar sight from dinosaur documentaries: the animal posing a threat is suddenly bitten in two by a Tyrannosaurus rex, leaping unbidden through the undergrowth with a camp flourish. The pachycephalosaurus clan, led by their relieved dad, scurry happily away to the sound of the interloper’s cracking skull.

Published: March 6, 2026, 5:00 am

Morrissey: Make-Up Is a Lie review – nostalgic, sentimental and dull, he is a shadow of what he once was

(Sire)
Dodgy conspiracy theories are thankfully kept to one track, but the rest is not much better, lacking insight even when Morrissey returns to his specialist subjects

Pretend that you don’t know a single thing about Steven Morrissey. Then play his recent single Notre-Dame. First you’ll hear a stutter of the kind of noirish, poptimised disco that might herald a new Harry Styles number, then a tremulous, faintly glitchy voice singing about the Paris cathedral.

You will probably be aware that Notre-Dame was partly destroyed in a fire in 2019. You will quickly glean that Morrissey and anonymous others believe it was no accident. “We know who tried to kill you,” he coos. “We will not be silent.” You may need to do some research to realise he is referring to the baseless claim that the fire was a deliberate act of arson covered up by the French government. You will soon be reading about conspiracy theories fuelled by rightwing commentators who suggested Islamist terrorism as a possible cause.

Published: March 6, 2026, 4:00 pm

‘It’s 10,000 people saying – we’re with you’: inside Trans Mission, a night of solidarity and joy for a community under stress

Olly Alexander and Glyn Fussell’s starry, Live Aid-inspired shindig – featuring Christine and the Queens, Kae Tempest and Munroe Bergdorf – is a show of unity in a dark time for trans people

‘We wanted to put on something as big as possible,” says the musician and actor Olly Alexander. He’s talking about Trans Mission, a night of solidarity with the transgender community that he’s put together with Mighty Hoopla director Glyn Fussell in aid of the Good Law Project and the charity Not a Phase. The jam-packed Wembley Arena bill includes Christine and the Queens, Sugababes, Romy and Wolf Alice.

For Alexander, Trans Mission is about “celebration, joy, unity”. For Christine and the Queens, it will be “a place of collective empathy”. For Not a Phase founder Dani St James, “it’s basically a super sped-up Royal Variety Performance, but with me and Olly double-kissing them and not Charles shaking their hands”.

Published: March 6, 2026, 3:44 pm

Feshareki/BBC Singers/Goddard review – goddess-inspired soundscape stuck in the great unknown

St Martin-in-the-Fields, London
Shiva Feshareki’s Divine Feminine fails to find its focus despite soprano Emma Tring’s incandescent, fearless performance of Celtic deity Brigid

Shiva Feshareki’s Divine Feminine is many things, but this latest work from the multi-award-winning British-Iranian composer and turntablist is not, as billed, an opera. Premiered at St Martin-in-the-Fields, transforming the nave, gallery and sanctuary of the central London church into an intricately amplified “360° soundscape”, Divine Feminine might be an installation, a piece of music-theatre, even a therapy session. What it’s not is a story urgently and solely committed to being told through song.

This isn’t stylistic gatekeeping. Terminology matters – if only because it creates a useful frame of reference and expectation. Art loses energy if it has no solid architecture to bounce off, no walls to scale or dismantle. As it was, this meditative celebration of the divine feminine – a concept never explicitly defined here, but doing sun salutations at the nexus of fecundity and sisterhood, rebirth and goddess-energy – chanted and shouted and stamped and danced, but never found its focus.

Published: March 6, 2026, 3:32 pm

Add to playlist: the maximalist melancholy of Hannah Lew and the week’s best tracks

The Californian creative navigates seamlessly from bass-driven disco to sparse electronic beats on her expansive debut album

From Richmond, California
Recommended if you like Molly Nilsson, Chromatics, the 1975’s 1980s pastiches
Up next Self-titled debut album out 10 April

For those of us who can’t resist the pull of melancholy synth-pop, Californian artist Hannah Lew is set to become a new obsession. Soon to be released via Night School Records – home to the likes of Tristwch Y Fenywod and Teresa Winter – Lew’s self-titled debut is one of those albums that could easily be a greatest hits, with nine irresistible, single-worthy tracks all saturated with neon-lit heartbreak.

Published: March 6, 2026, 12:00 pm

From luxury ‘dupes’ to literary doubles: why doppelgangers are everywhere right now

AI ‘twins’, Mar-a-Lago lookalikes, Melania impersonator conspiracies … doubles proliferate in today’s culture – and nowhere more so than in a series of unsettling new novels that draw on a rich gothic tradition to tap into our paranoid times

‘He was after me. Always had been. Why else would he target me months ago? Infiltrate my flat, my supposed safe space? Question was, what did he want from me. Who, for that matter, did I mean by me?” Isabel Waidner’s fifth novel, As If, opens with the meeting of two bedraggled strangers, Aubrey and Lindsey. Lindsey has materialised on Aubrey’s doorstep and Aubrey has asked him in, noting with pained curiosity how alike they look. “He had dark brown hair not unlike mine,” Aubrey tells us. “My unremarkable eyes they were looking back at me.” With this unsettling opener, the tone is set for a disquieting read, one that I found all the more uncanny as it overlaps so unnervingly with my own new book, Lean Cat, Savage Cat.

Both books draw their protagonists from the lower rungs of showbiz, both utilise the language of fashion in deliberately off-putting ways, both bring the sybaritic myths of artistic life into direct conflict with the realities of housing insecurity and wage instability. Both novels look at how unprocessed grief can fracture the psyche, and – crucially – they both centre on a mysterious pair of doubles. They were also published on the same day. All of which prompts me to ask: does my book have its own doppelganger?

Published: March 6, 2026, 2:30 pm

Saba Sams: ‘I’ve no interest in reading Wuthering Heights again’

The Send Nudes author on rereading Lorrie Moore, finding Dodie Smith at the right time, and the enduring brilliance of Muriel Spark

My earliest reading memory
I remember reading Jacqueline Wilson aloud to my mum in the car. I think it was The Illustrated Mum. My mum couldn’t believe it was a children’s book, and I felt so proud. I always found most children’s books overly virtuous and safe, but Wilson’s never were. I love her for that.

My favourite book growing up
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark. I read it again recently, having mostly forgotten it, and loved it just as much. It’s totally alive.

Published: March 6, 2026, 10:00 am

The Infamous Gilberts by Angela Tomaski review – a delicious comfort read

A decaying gothic mansion tells the story of the family who once lived there, in this pitch-perfect debut of disappearances, betrayal and despair

Angela Tomaski’s debut novel is a delicious comfort read about loyalty and despair, and a gentle questioning of the nature of progress. Crumbling stately home Thornwalk is on the verge of becoming a luxury hotel. The ancestral owners are all dead – with the exception of a pair of rapacious cousins, naturally – and the only person left to mourn is the loyal valet (and maybe more?) of the old master.

Maximus, last guardian of the house, guides the reader on a final tour through Thornwalk, and the lost lives, loves and brass buttons of the titular Gilberts: Lydia, the eldest girl, desperate to fall in love; Hugo, the stubborn eldest son; “poor little Annabel”, dreaming of writing; quiet runaway Jeremy; and unstable actor Rosalind. He takes us, room by room, trinket by trinket, stain by stain (blackcurrant to blood) through 100 years of family life before it is all lost for ever.

Published: March 6, 2026, 7:00 am

Harry Styles review – Netflix concert is a communal love-in with some big pop moments

Co-op Live, Manchester
Recorded for the streaming giant, this performance wrestles songs from the star’s new album into more interesting shapes

As 2026’s first big pop moment, everything around Harry Styles’ new album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally feels suitably blockbuster. At last weekend’s Brit awards, Styles premiered the record’s lead single, Aperture, alongside a troupe of dancers and an expensive-sounding choir, while Friday’s “one night only” de facto album launch party takes place in a 20,000 capacity arena.

This is “intimate” for Styles, who switches to stadiums this summer – and the show is being recorded for posterity by Netflix. The streaming Goliath’s presence means all phones are to be placed in a recyclable bag that prevents the use of recording equipment; it’s a nice way to stay inside the moment, sure, but chiefly a fail-safe against spoiling the forthcoming TV special.

Published: March 7, 2026, 3:54 am

Amazon pulls sponsorship from Paris book festival after booksellers’ association boycott

Syndicat de la Librairie Française accused online retailer of trying to ‘flood the market with fake AI-generated books’

Amazon has withdrawn from the Paris book festival after a boycott by France’s booksellers’ association prompted a row over the company’s sponsorship of the event.

The festival, due to take place from 17 to 19 April, will now go ahead without the backing of the US retail company, after a mutual decision by organisers and Amazon to end their partnership.

Published: March 6, 2026, 5:56 pm

‘Someone’s paid a grand in cash’: fans camp out in Manchester for first Harry Styles concert since 2023

Styles will perform new album in full at Co-op Live arena show, with tickets being traded for well above £20 face value

More than 20,000 fans from all over the world flocked towards the Co-op Live arena in Manchester on Friday to watch Harry Styles perform his first concert in two and a half years – some waiting 48 hours for a place down the front.

Styles will perform his new album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally in full, after its release earlier today. Anticipation for the show had been high since tickets went on sale for £20 in early February, which, barring a performance of the album’s lead single Aperture at the Brit awards – which took place at the same arena a week earlier – will be Styles’ first time on stage since closing out a tour in Italy in July 2023. It has been marketed as a homecoming show for the pop star, who was raised outside the city in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire.

Published: March 6, 2026, 6:03 pm

Oscar race enters final stretch as Sinners gains ground with Actor awards win

With voting now closed, the months-long campaign for Oscar glory is over – but industry insiders are still dissecting every award-season clue in a tight best picture race

Voting for the Oscars closed at 5pm PT on Thursday, meaning that the months-long campaigns of the favoured films have hung up their spurs: the red carpets have been rolled up, hospitality pavilions shut down, the PR minders putting their feet up until the Oscars ceremony itself takes place. The prefatory campaign – on-stage Q&As, special-screening paparazzi shoots, the string of lesser awards ceremonies – is over, and there is now nothing for the nominees to do but kick back and count the days.

Over the long haul of awards campaigning, which can reasonably be said to start with the near-simultaneous late summer film festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto and hits its peak in mid-February as Oscar voting opens, reading the runes has become a full-time activity across the entire film industry, and an absolute obsession for Hollywood insider publications such as Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline. Every ebb and flow of the process – a critics-awards nomination here, a trade-guild snub there – is endlessly picked over for what it might mean for the end result.

Published: March 6, 2026, 2:18 pm

What links Joni Mitchell, Ian Dury and Frida Kahlo? The Saturday quiz

From ancient China and Paris’s Latin Quarter to ‘Han shot first’, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 The slogan “Han shot first” protested against the re-editing of which film?
2 The boundaries of the North, East and West Ridings met at which city?
3 What is the smallest species of UK crow?
4 Which notorious Disney film was based on stories by Joel Chandler Harris?
5 Which precursor of the UN was established by the treaty of Versailles?
6 Rama IX ruled which country from 1946 to 2016?
7 Which singer and pianist was born Eunice Waymon?
8 What military force was the BAOR?
What links:
9 Ancient China; California; Nagasaki; Latin Quarter of Paris; Rome?
10 Alert (possible); warning (expected); severe warning (risk to life and significant disruption)?
11 Covalent; ionic; metallic?
12 Bakelite; french fries; internal combustion engine; saxophone; standard map projection?
13 Ade Adepitan; Ian Dury; Frida Kahlo; Joni Mitchell; Itzhak Perlman; FDR?
14 Bligh’s ship; Olympus Mons location; Panthera leo; Via Lactea?
15 Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou; Chester Burnett; Jordan Belfort?

Published: March 7, 2026, 7:00 am

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for Arya’s birthday udon | The new vegan

A classic fried tofu stir-fry that’s bang-full of flavour

My funny, curious, panda-loving daughter, Arya, is turning nine this week. So I wanted to write a recipe to celebrate her and some of her favourite things to eat. Arya adores the chewiness of udon, the bounciness of tofu, the sweet, sour saltiness of sweet soy and tamarind, the crunch of cabbage and she’d put chilli (in any form) over her breakfast cereal if she could (although it’s optional in this recipe). Happy birthday, Arya.

Published: March 7, 2026, 6:00 am

Urine luck: seven expert tips for peeing correctly

Doctors share healthful habits for managing urination and debunk misconceptions about trips to the bathroom

Urination is a vital human function and often occurs without much fanfare or thought – but age, sex, medications and a host of other factors can influence how you use the bathroom. Because there can be so much variation, patients must not ignore what seems out of the norm for their bodies, says Dr Vannita Simma-Chiang, a board-certified urologist and associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

“If something seems strange to you, one of the best things you can do is just go in and chat with a medical professional about it,” says Simma-Chiang.

Published: March 6, 2026, 5:00 pm

Denim dilemmas: what to wear with flared jeans

There’s a reason this 70s staple is never out of style. Take your cue from Margot Robbie and team flares with a structured jacket and smart accessories

Published: March 6, 2026, 6:00 am

Why are cats’ ears on top of their head and not at the sides? The kids’ quiz

Five multiple-choice questions – set by children – to test your knowledge, and a chance to submit your own junior brainteasers for future quizzes

• ​Submit a question

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.

Published: March 7, 2026, 7:00 am

‘Landscapes as wild as they get in Europe’: family hiking in Albania and Montenegro

Mountain hikes, river swims and centuries-old traditions appeal to the whole family on a trip to the Balkans

‘Uno, Uno, Uno No Mercy!” the six-year-old son of our hosts for the day bellows while leading my boys, 10 and 12, into his dimly lit corrugated iron home. I let out a little sigh of relief. The popular card game is a much-needed icebreaker as ominous clouds close in on the remote stan (the Albanian word for a shepherd dwelling). Despite the language barrier, much laughter and consternation soon spill out of the darkness, just as hail hammers down on the tin roof. Dogs bark, chickens cluck and sheep bleat as the thunder grows louder, and we all – our eight hosts, seven guests and one guide – shelter in the tiny kitchen, the living room-cum-bedroom (now Uno parlour), or on the veranda.

It’s day two of a seven-day trip with Undiscovered Balkans, crisscrossing between Albania and Montenegro on foot and by car. Having always wanted to hike the Peaks of the Balkans trail, a 119-mile (192km) hike linking Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania, I jumped at the chance to sample this new guided itinerary. Combining some of the region’s most famous hikes with gentler excursions for kids, such as a day experiencing life as a shepherd, or visits to remote swimming spots, it seemed a novel alternative to our usual “get a map and hope for the best” approach to hiking holidays.

Published: March 7, 2026, 7:00 am

Experience: I lost my arm – now I’m one of the fastest drummers in the world

One afternoon, I set up my kit and taped a drumstick to my amputated arm

The transformer exploded a few feet from where I was standing. One moment I was on the roof of a restaurant kitchen in Atlanta, cleaning exhaust vents. The next, I was on the ground, my body seizing and burned.

Before that day, music had been the centre of my life. My father was a well-known guitarist in Australia and I grew up watching him play. When I was 14 my parents bought me a drum kit for Christmas. I fell in love immediately. By 22, I was playing in two bands – one metal, one reggae – and preparing to audition for the Atlanta Institute of Music. Then I was electrocuted.

Published: March 6, 2026, 5:00 am

Am I on my phone too much? The Becky Barnicoat cartoon

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Published: March 7, 2026, 6:00 am

‘We’re powerless … and hoping nothing hits us’: trapped on a tanker as Iran war escalates

Seafarer tells of explosions in the sky as thousands stuck on vessels after strait of Hormuz is effectively closed to shipping

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

Thousands of seafarers are trapped on tankers in the Gulf after the strait of Hormuz was effectively closed to shipping by the escalating war on Iran.

The Guardian spoke to a crew member on one of the stranded tankers that typically ferries vast quantities of oil from the Middle East to ports around the world.

Published: March 6, 2026, 10:14 am

How Flightradar24 became the go-to platform for the world to watch global aviation crises unfold

The Swedish flight tracking tool, spun out of a price comparison portal, is tracking the travel chaos sparked by the US-Israel war on Iran in real time

Mikael Robertsson and Olov Lindberg did not set out to build one of the pre-eminent monitors of global airspace. In a bid to draw more eyes to their Swedish flight price comparison portal, the entrepreneurs added a page charting air traffic.

That page became Flightradar24, the portal that people around the world now turn to when there is chaos – and drama – in the skies.

Published: March 6, 2026, 1:41 am

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Crisis in the Middle East, Ramadan in Gaza, a blackout in Havana and Stella McCartney at Paris fashion week – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Published: March 6, 2026, 7:08 pm