‘The dream is to be a standup, but everyone who knows me says: Please don’t’ – Riz Ahmed on chaos, comedy, and defying categorisation

His multi-hyphenate career has made him one of Britain’s most versatile recognisable stars – but hasn’t stopped him facing some seriously awkward moments…

Riz Ahmed was multitasking. It was February in London, and the actor was doing an interview with a men’s magazine en route to collect his kid from school. So far, so starry. “Here’s the reality,” says Ahmed today, palms slamming down hard on the table. “I’m late for the school run. I’m stuck in traffic. I’m meant to be at my laptop, but I’m having to do it on my phone, in my car. I’m double parked on a double yellow line, doing the interview, looking over my shoulder. The traffic warden’s coming, it’s rush hour. He tries to move me along. I try to get out of there while I’m talking on the phone to this guy.”

Distracted, Ahmed hit another car. The driver jumped out of his vehicle, incensed. “He’s like, ‘What the fuck are you doing?!’” says Ahmed, who had been attempting to continue the interview. “I’m now going off video, like, ‘Oh, my signal’s a bit bad!’ while going on and off mute negotiating car insurance details. On the phone, I’m going, ‘Absolutely, it was just such an honour getting to tell my story with these amazing collaborators,’” he says, his voice lowering an octave and turning smooth.

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

Six great reads: Doge explained, ‘alpine divorce’ and the secret lives of body doubles

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

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen: the Duffer brothers’ horror series is absolutely terrifying

The creators of Stranger Things’s new dread-suffused drama sees a happy couple head off for an idyllic wedding – a poorly-lit cabin in the woods. The results are chilling

When I heard the Duffer brothers, creators of Stranger Things, had a new series on Netflix, I knew I had to watch – but I was not eager. I believe identical twins who make moving pictures are inherently creepy, even when those productions aren’t called Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen. My nervous system won’t let me enjoy horror, and I don’t understand people who do. Is life not scary enough?

The first episode (out Thursday 26 March) – is that a working title or what? It’s like calling Mrs Doubtfire “Heartwarming Drag Act”, or Free Willy “Pelagic Marine Predators Do Not Belong in Captivity” – places us four days before the wedding of Nicky (Adam DiMarco) and Rachel (Camila Morrone), the central event of the story.

Published: March 21, 2026, 7:00 am

Best thing I ever ate? My first In-N-Out burger in LA

Michael B Jordan headed there straight from the Oscars. No wonder. Their Double-Double is ‘the near perfect expression of burger-ness’

They say you never forget your first time, but for most of us, this doesn’t apply to cheeseburgers. We can’t really remember our first cheeseburger, because we start eating them at such an early age, before the memory centres of our brains are fully formed. In fact, in Wisconsin (“America’s dairyland”) babies are traditionally weaned on a fortifying diet of cheeseburgers, bratwurst and fondue, along with little sips of lager, just to make sure we acquire the taste.

But while I may not be able to recall the particular details of my very first cheeseburger, the sense-memories of them are embedded deep within my subconscious. The perfect flavour-chord of ketchup, mustard and pickles on molten cheese and juicy beef occupies the same psychological space as the peppery cinnamon-and-clove aroma of my father’s Old Spice and the warmth of my mother’s hug. More than mere memories, these are encoded messages: comfort comes in the form of hugs, spicy aftershave, and cheeseburgers.

Published: March 21, 2026, 10:00 am

Thousands of people are selling their identities to train AI – but at what cost?

Gig AI trainers worldwide are selling moments of their lives, including calls and texts, to AI companies for quick cash

One morning last year, Jacobus Louw set out on his daily neighborhood walk to feed the seagulls he finds along the way. Except this time, he recorded several videos of his feet and the view as he walked on the pavement. The video earned him $14, about 10 times the country’s minimum wage, or for Louw, a 27-year-old based in Cape Town, South Africa, half a week’s worth of groceries.

The video was for an “Urban Navigation” task Louw found on Kled AI, an app that pays contributors for uploading their data, such as videos and photos, to train artificial intelligence models. In a couple of weeks, Louw made $50 by uploading pictures and videos of his everyday life.

Published: March 21, 2026, 2:00 pm

The Bachelorette bet big on controversy. Is it any surprise it blew up in their faces?

The show’s last-minute cancellation over star Taylor Frankie Paul’s domestic violence footage is the sadly predictable result of a network overlooking red flags

This week was not a good one to be a Disney executive. Days ago, reports began circulating that Taylor Frankie Paul, the star of the Hulu series Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and ABC’s upcoming The Bachelorette, was involved in a domestic violence investigation stemming from a February incident with her ex-partner, Dakota Mortensen. (Disney is the parent company of Hulu and ABC.) By Tuesday, multiple outlets reported that production on the fifth season of Mormon Wives was down, as cast members refused to interact with Paul. The 31-year-old TikTok turned reality star, meanwhile, soldiered on with a gauntlet of Bachelorette promotional duties, speaking vaguely about “heavy times”. But on Thursday, video leaked online of a domestic violence incident from 2023; footage showed an intoxicated Paul throwing metal barstools at Mortensen and accidentally hitting her five-year-old daughter. By day’s end, the network cancelled the whole season of The Bachelorette, heavily advertised and filmed in its entirety last year, three days before its premiere.

You could say that this mess, which has drawn the attention of people previously unaware of MomTok or the Bachelorette, is sad, troubling or too complex for entertainment. (It is all of the above.) What you cannot say is that this is a surprise. To anyone with even a cursory understanding of the Mormon Wives franchise or time to Google, this debacle is sadly predictable – the likely result of banking on a famously divisive reality star to rejuvenate a flagging franchise, and the latest example of legacy media overlooking red flags for influencer clout. To be clear: Paul’s actions are her own, but this debacle – which will reportedly cost ABC tens of millions of dollars – is on the company.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:11 pm

Middle East crisis live: Trump says US considering ‘winding down’ war; Iran fired missiles at UK-US base on Diego Garcia

President says US ‘getting very close to meeting our objectives’; missiles fired at joint US-UK military base in Indian Ocean but neither hit

Circling back now to Diego Garcia, Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at the joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean – but neither of them hit, according to news reports citing US officials.

The Wall Street Journal said one of the missiles failed in flight, and that a US warship fired an SM-3 interceptor at the other, citing two US officials. It could not be determined if an interception was made, one said.

Published: March 21, 2026, 2:21 pm

Israel deliberately targeting medical facilities in south Lebanon, say health workers

Medics and officials say there is systematic use of double-tap strikes in campaign to make the south uninhabitable

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Lebanese healthcare workers and officials say Israeli bombings have deliberately targeted medical workers and facilities in south Lebanon, including through the use of double-tap strikes, in what they describe as a systematic effort to make the area unlivable.

Since the war began on 2 March, Israel has struck at least 128 medical facilities and ambulances across south Lebanon, killing 40 healthcare workers and wounding 107, according to the Lebanese ministry of health. The war started when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel, triggering an Israeli military campaign.

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

‘It’s come at the wrong time’: how Iran war has floored the Gulf as a sports hub

Conflict has not only hit sporting calendar but laid bare weakness in plans for diversifying economies through sport

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The sight of Nasser al-Khelaifi grounded in Doha when Paris Saint Germain hosted Chelsea in the last-16 of the Champions League last week provided a symbolic illustration of the fragility of the Gulf’s sports project amid the conflict in the Middle East.

Al-Khelaifi is the president of PSG, the chair of Qatar Sports Investments and, most crucially, the European Football Clubs, a lobby group that, along with Uefa, runs the Champions League. He is seen as the second-most powerful individual in world football, after the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino. Yet, with Qatari airspace closed, the 52-year-old was forced to miss his first PSG match for years.

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

US and Israel’s war on Iran is a disaster for the environment, analysis shows

Exclusive: War has led to 5m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in two weeks and is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined

The US-Israel war on Iran is a disaster for the climate, according to an analysis that finds it is draining the global carbon budget faster than 84 countries combined.

As warplanes, drones and missiles kill thousands of people, level infrastructure and turn the Middle East into a gigantic environmental sacrifice zone, the first analysis of the climate cost has found the conflict led to 5m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in its first 14 days.

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:00 pm

Iran’s willingness to escalate this high-stakes war is its greatest weapon

Regime will do whatever it takes to cling on to power – including sacrificing economies of other Gulf states

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Brinkmanship, the ability to take a country to the edge of war without plunging it into the abyss, was the cornerstone of cold war diplomacy. But in our different, more unstable times – in which the line between state and non-state actors has blurred, and weapons of war have diffused – the world this week finally tipped over the edge, and suddenly it is in freefall.

The first six days of the Iran war cost the US $12.7bn (£9.5bn), but now the Pentagon is seeking as much as $200bn in military funding. Oil at $125 a barrel is no longer an Iranian, or Russian, fantasy. The crown jewel of Qatar, Ras Laffan – the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant – may not reopen fully for five years, at a cost of $20bn a year. Other combustible oil depots in the Gulf, from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi, are exposed to Iran’s low-cost drones. Then add the human cost of 18,000 civilians injured and more than 3,000 killed in Iran alone.

Published: March 21, 2026, 5:00 am

Record deaths in US immigration custody expose systemic failures

Families, advocates and lawmakers say poor care, opaque investigations and bureaucracy leave deaths unexplained

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The circumstances of many of the record number of deaths in US immigration custody under the second Trump administration have left loved ones often searching in vain for answers amid a lack of transparency over key investigations.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reports mandated by Congress, autopsy reports and 911 calls collected by the Guardian raise questions about the quality of medical care, allegedly inadequate or haphazard responses to emergencies, and contraction of diseases and infections inside detention facilities that in some cases contributed to detainee deaths.

Published: March 21, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Frustration, anger, confusion’: Trump administration leaves millions without clear path to paying off student loans

Court’s decision to eliminate Save plan and internal shuffling on who handles what when it comes to student loans presents new challenges for borrowers

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Many Americans with student debt are again facing future upheaval after a federal appeals court recently ordered the end of a Biden-era student loan repayment program, known as the Saving on a Value Education (Save) Plan, a move that coincided with another grim revelation: new education department data shows that by the end of 2025, 7.7 million borrowers had defaulted on $181bn in federal student loans.

The Save plan, which was launched in 2023, is an income-driven repayment program created with the goal of cutting undergraduate loans in half, bringing some borrowers’ monthly payments to $0, and offering early forgiveness for low-balance borrowers. Shortly after the program was announced, Republican attorneys general across the country sued to get it killed, arguing that it was an overstep of executive power and imposed heavy taxpayer costs.

Published: March 21, 2026, 11:00 am

US interest in electric vehicles surges as gas prices jump amid Iran war

Online searches for electric and hybrid cars increase as war-linked fuel prices hit highest levels in nearly three years

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US car buyers are showing a surge in interest in electric vehicles after Donald Trump’s decision to attack Iran helped cause a major jump in gasoline prices.

The cost to refuel a vehicle in the US is at its highest level in nearly three years, with the average national price of gas standing at $3.90 a gallon on Friday.

Published: March 21, 2026, 11:00 am

Alabama student reportedly fell to his death in Barcelona waters by accident

Autopsy reveals James ‘Jimmy’ Gracey’s injuries consistent with repeatedly hitting breakwater’s rocks, Spanish media report

A University of Alabama student who was found dead in Barcelona after going missing while vacationing evidently fell into the sea on accident in view of surveillance cameras – and an autopsy revealed injuries on his body that were consistent with having repeatedly struck a breakwater’s rocks.

Such details about James “Jimmy” Gracey surfaced in the Spanish media as a spokesperson for police in Barcelona told the Associated Press that “all signs point” to the 20-year-old’s death as having been an accident.

Published: March 21, 2026, 1:42 pm

At least 14 people killed in fire at South Korean car parts factory

Almost 60 injured in blaze in Daejeon with footage seemingly showing people jumping from burning building to escape

A fire at a car parts factory in South Korea has killed 14 people and injured almost 60 others.

Firefighters said all of the missing are now accounted for after a search operation of the wreckage of the three-storey building.

Published: March 21, 2026, 10:44 am

US counter-terrorism chief who resigned says he fears retaliation but has no regrets

Joe Kent, who left Trump administration over Iran war, tells Megyn Kelly ‘facts are on my side’ amid FBI investigation

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The counter-terrorism official who resigned from Donald Trump’s administration over the US and Israel’s war against Iran has said he is bracing for political retribution – but would do it all again anyway.

Asked by conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly if he was concerned about a pre-existing FBI search investigating him for leaking classified information, Kent said he was ambivalent.

Published: March 21, 2026, 2:12 pm

Death, power and paranoia: painting that shocked German society finally returns to Berlin

Mors Imperator caused a scandal in 1887 amid fears it mocked the German kaiser – more than 100 years later it is being displayed in a state museum

Wrapped in a cloak with ermine fur and wearing a jagged iron crown, a hulking skeleton rests one foot on a globe and knocks over a royal throne with a dramatic flick of its ivory wrist.

Entitled Mors Imperator (“Death is the Ruler”), the German artist Hermione von Preuschen’s 1887 symbolical painting was meant to express the transience of fame and power. But authorities feared the picture could be seen as mocking the ageing German Emperor Wilhelm I, who then had recently turned 90, and refused to accept its submission to the Berlin Academy of the Arts’ annual exhibition that year.

Published: March 21, 2026, 5:00 am

Democrats outraged as Fetterman votes to advance Markwayne Mullin nomination

Calls for Pennsylvania senator – Trump’s ‘favorite Democrat’ – to resign after casting decisive committee vote

Democrats reacted with outrage to their party colleague John Fetterman’s decision to advance the nomination of Republican US senator Markwayne Mullin as homeland security secretary.

Fetterman, the senior US senator from Pennsylvania, has in recent months broken with the party several times to support Republican proposals, and has routinely expressed staunch support for Israel. He cast the decisive committee vote on Thursday to advance Mullin’s nomination to succeed Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary.

Published: March 20, 2026, 8:57 pm

From Goop to gavel: Gwyneth Paltrow’s wardrobe clearout heads to auction

Nearly 300 of the actor’s items, from designer gowns to everyday basics, to be sold in Los Angeles, with some lots under $100

A customised sunhat. A slogan sweatshirt. A “mom” necklace. An old copy of Cosmopolitan. If these sound like items found in many homes today, they’re actually the castoffs of a household name: Gwyneth Paltrow.

Next week, nearly 300 pieces owned by Paltrow will be on sale as part of an auction at Julien’s, the Los Angeles auction house that has sold big-ticket items such as Marilyn Monroe’s so-called “naked” dress and the leather jacket worn by Olivia Newton-John in Grease. But, while those items went for six-figure prices, Paltrow’s sale is a little more affordable, with estimates starting at about $50 (£37) to $75 (£56) for some of Paltrow’s personalised stationery.

Published: March 21, 2026, 11:00 am

How the FBI can conduct mass surveillance – even without AI

Anthropic fought against the government’s misuse of its technology, but authorities are buying Americans’ data, enabling them to surveil citizens at scale

The FBI declares it can conduct mass surveillance without AI, despite Anthropic’s protest.

A central part of the standoff between Anthropic and the Department of Defense has revolved around the artificial intelligence firm’s refusal to allow its technology to be used for mass domestic surveillance. Yet even without the cooperation of AI firms, remarks this week from Kash Patel, FBI director, show how authorities are by any reasonable measure already operating a system that can surveil citizens at scale.

Published: March 21, 2026, 2:00 pm

Trump’s Iran war stirs anger in Maga country Kentucky

In Appalachia, a deeply red region hit by poverty and cuts, some ask why billions are going to war instead of home

When it comes to politics in Appalachian Kentucky, one of the first things anyone will tell you is that people defy easy categorization.

There are fervent church goers who say that Jesus’ message of helping others is basically socialism, and that’s a good thing. There are gun owners who pine for universal healthcare.

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:00 pm

RFK Jr overstepped in declaring gender-affirming treatments unsafe, judge rules

Judge rules that Trump’s health secretary did not go through proper procedures when issuing declaration

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, overstepped his power when he declared that gender-affirming treatments are unsafe, a federal judge has ruled.

In a blow to the Trump administration’s attempts to limit access to gender transition procedures, Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled Thursday that Kennedy did not go through the proper procedures when issuing his 12-page declaration last December.

Published: March 20, 2026, 8:43 pm

Trump news at a glance: president blasts Nato allies amid reports US will send more troops to Middle East

Trump called alliance members ‘cowards’ for not wanting ‘to help open’ the strait of Hormuz; more than a dozen nations later made vague offer to help – key US politics stories from 20 March at a glance

Several Nato members and other US allied nations pledged on Thursday to join “appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage” through the strait of Hormuz. But the joint statement from the leaders of more than a dozen nations – including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Bahrain – did not provide details on how they would do this.

That followed a recent bashing by Donald Trump, who called alliance members “cowards” for not wanting “to help open” the strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively closed the strait with periodic attacks on oil tankers and other shipping.

Published: March 21, 2026, 1:00 am

Iranian Americans are divided on the war and Iran’s future: ‘Bombing is not the same thing as liberation’

Little joy could be found among Iranians in the diaspora as Friday rang in Persian new year and the war on their homeland reached the three-week mark

When Israeli and American missiles first started falling on Tehran, and as news of the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leaked out, Nasser, a sixtysomething Iranian American dad from Boston who regularly travels to Iran, briefly experienced something akin to optimism. He “felt a flash of hope”, he told me, “or maybe vengeance, when Khamenei and his circle were hit”.

It was a common sentiment among the millions of Iranians in the North American diaspora who have, for multiple reasons, come to reject the rule of the velayat-e-faqih, or the “guardianship of the Islamic jurist”, the Islamic Republic’s governing doctrine. Many Iranians inside and outside the country had just recently held Khamenei directly responsible for the horrific bloodshed during the mass protests in January. If the top leadership of the Islamic republic was decapitated, perhaps, many believed, Iran could forge a different future.

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:00 pm

Trump is eager to disclose details on others’ health – but not his own

President revealing congressman’s terminal diagnosis follows caginess about his own health, such as recent rash

When Donald Trump revealed that Republican congressman Neal Dunn would have been “dead by June” if not for White House doctors who treated the representative’s reportedly terminal condition, many were shocked by his disclosure.

The president’s comments last week, which unfolded during a meandering presser with Republican House speaker Mike Johnson and Kennedy Center leaders, came after Trump prodded the top politician for details on Dunn’s health.

Published: March 21, 2026, 10:00 am

‘I’ve seen the devil’: Brazil’s UFO capital marks 30 years since ‘alien encounter’

Sightings in Varginha in 1996 have been dismissed as hoax, but saga continues to draw people from around world

The skies over this far-flung coffee-growing hub went charcoal black, the heavens opened and one of Brazil’s greatest mysteries was born.

“It really was something unique,” recalls Marco Antônio Reis, a zoo director, who was at his ranch outside Varginha one stormy day in January 1996 when, he says, an otherworldly creature came to town.

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘It’s stupid’: why western carmakers’ retreat from electric risks dooming them to irrelevance

Iran war should be wake-up call about costs of not going full throttle towards EVs as Chinese have done, experts say

By the 1980s, Detroit’s once titanic carmakers were being upended by rivals from Japan. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler had grown rich selling gas guzzlers, but when oil prices rose and suddenly cheap, fuel-efficient Japanese models looked attractive, they were unprepared. The collapse in sales led to hundreds of thousands of job losses in the automotive heartland of the US.

Now western car manufacturers are making what one former boss calls a similar “profound strategic mistake” as they pull back from electric vehicles (EVs) and refocus on the combustion engine just as oil prices are soaring once again. Experts say the industry’s future – and that of tens of millions of jobs – could be on the line. This time, however, the threat is from China.

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:00 pm

Shifting tastes, shrinking sales: Napa Valley’s wineries adapt amid ‘shocking’ downturn

From layoffs to export troubles, California’s wine industry is in flux – but small producers are innovating to survive

After more than a quarter century tracking the seemingly endless growth of the wine industry, Rob McMillan was finally vindicated last year as California’s vigneron of doom.

McMillan is the author of Silicon Valley Bank’s annual state of the US wine industry report, and the 2025 edition was a doozy. Since 2018, the bank has warned the industry that a correction in demand would shake the wine world. That reality is now here, with 2025 revenue down, the volume of wine produced dropping and a “bumpy bottom” in demand forecast in 2027 and 2028.

Published: March 21, 2026, 2:12 pm

Blind date: ‘He said he hadn’t touched alcohol since Christmas – then downed four wines’

Brian, 53, a property management director, meets Jeanette, 46, who works in investor relations and occasionally models

What were you hoping for?
At worst, a free meal and an enjoyable conversation. At best, the start of a journey …

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

I was struggling to understand my autistic son - until we watched an episode of Doctor Who

A combination of autism and ADHD caused outbursts, confusion and stress that my son couldn’t understand – until he saw David Tennant behaving the same way

The film Elf is a no-go in our house. My son interprets it as the psychological horror story of a man who is telling the truth but is constantly disbelieved. He loves The Traitors and rewatches entire series of it – knowing who the traitors are gives him an autonomy and comfort watching the game. Any other kind of conflict on screen and he’ll leave the room or wind it forward. I tried to explain that there are no stories without conflict. It made no difference.

My son is autistic and has ADHD – what’s sometimes referred to as AuDHD. We’ve always called him “fizzy”. He’s often the noisiest person in a room but hates too much noise. He’s incredibly sociable and wants so desperately to be part of the fun but finds the fun stressful. I had never seen anyone like him represented on screen.

Published: March 21, 2026, 7:00 am

Love Actually? Washington’s current relationship with Britain is more like Contempt Actually | Timothy Garton Ash

If the UK wants to regain serious respect in the world, it needs its European leg as well as its transatlantic one

“A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward, I will be prepared to be much stronger. And the president should be prepared for that.” Thus spoke Hugh Grant, playing the British prime minister confronting the US president in a famous scene in the romcom Love Actually. Real-life British prime minister Keir Starmer has attempted to stand up ever so slightly to the current bully in the White House over the latest US war in the Middle East. Despite the British government’s right-royal efforts to flatter Donald Trump ever since he was elected US president, his response to Starmer’s little attempt has been a torrent of contempt. So the reality is not Love Actually. It’s Contempt Actually.

Asked about the British government’s subtle distinction between defensive strikes in the Gulf, which it now supports, and offensive ones, which it doesn’t, Maga ideologue Steve Bannon tells the New Statesman’s Freddie Hayward: “That’s diplomatic bullshit. Fuck you. You’re either an ally or you’re not. Fuck you. The special relationship is over.” Ah, the “special relationship”! It must be 40 years since I first heard former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt say: “The special relationship is so special only one side knows it exists.”

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

Israel has crushed Unrwa in Gaza – and the rest of the world has done nothing | Philippe Lazzarini

I bow out of my role for the organisation at a perilous time for the international law. There are consequences not just for Palestinians, but the wider Middle East

This month I will conclude my tenure as the commissioner-general of Unrwa – the United Nations agency that has provided essential, public-like services to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East for more than 75 years. As the world struggles to emerge from the quagmire of Gaza and the US-Israeli war against Iran threatens to engulf the entire region, I am profoundly concerned about the future of Palestinian refugees and the multilateral system at large.

Having endured more than two years of relentless physical, political and legal attacks, most fiercely in Palestine, Unrwa has reached breaking point. The risks to Palestinians’ rights and the stability of the region are immense.

Philippe Lazzarini is commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa)

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 21, 2026, 10:00 am

The Trump administration kills children abroad while being ‘pro-life’ at home | Arwa Mahdawi

In Georgia, a woman was charged with murder after allegedly taking pills to induce a termination. Yet America happily drops bombs on children abroad

How many children has the US helped kill this week in the Middle East? It’s hard to keep track, but Unicef reports that more than 1,800 children in the region have been killed or injured since the US and Israel started a war with Iran on 28 February.

In Lebanon, a US-backed Israel is killing or wounding a classroom’s worth of children every day, Unicef’s deputy executive director told Reuters. That’s just after killing more than 20,000 children in Gaza in two years, all with the help of US taxpayer dollars.

The assault on freedom with Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi
On Monday 8 June, join Mehdi Hasan and Arwa Mahdawi to discuss the current seismic changes in geopolitics, the alarming rise of populism and nationalism, and its global implications. Live in London and livestreamed worldwide. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Published: March 21, 2026, 1:00 pm

Infertility: at a time when we need the right words, others are unable to find them | Nuala McGovern

For me, better timing, fewer platitudes, less certainty and more listening and empathy are helpful ways of connecting with people in the loneliest of times

Some things are easy to talk about; infertility is not one of them. I speak from experience – of miscarriage and unsuccessful rounds of IVF – and I’ve heard some clangers along the way. I forgive you all. Well, most of you.

But I also come at it as the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. Three decades into live talk radio, I listen for a living. I’m adept at noticing micro-expressions, the pauses, the shifts in tone, the feelings that sit between the words on and off air. And I keep wondering: why are we so bad at talking about infertility? This is even something that, until now, I haven’t spoken publicly about.

Nuala McGovern presents Woman’s Hour Monday, the Woman’s Hour Guide to Life, and SEND in the Spotlight podcasts on BBC Sounds. On Sunday 22 March’s episode of The Woman’s Hour Guide to Life, Nuala and her guests discuss navigating conversations around infertility.

Published: March 21, 2026, 8:00 am

Attacks on synagogues and Jewish shops in the UK, Europe and the US don’t hurt Netanyahu. They just hurt ordinary Jews | Jonathan Freedland

Too many want to cast acts of violence and antisemitism as blows against Israel’s government. But the fear and terror land on real people, thousands of miles away

Let us begin with a brief exchange on GB News, confirmed this week as the TV arm of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Following an attack on a synagogue last week in Michigan, in which a gunman drove a car packed with explosives through the entrance to the building before opening fire, a pundit on the channel sought to clarify what the attacker actually meant by his actions. “This was an Israeli temple,” she explained. “It was aligned with Israel.”

By way of evidence, she cited the name of the synagogue – Temple Israel – apparently unaware that Jews have referred to themselves as “the people of Israel” for millennia, long before there was a state of that name, and that there are, for that reason, countless synagogues in the US called Temple Israel. No, for her, the Michigan house of worship, with its on-site school where more than a hundred children were in lessons that day, was a de facto embassy of the Israeli state and therefore an understandable, if not legitimate, target. Hold that episode in your mind.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:13 pm

Natalya Lobanova on quitting social media – cartoon

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Published: March 21, 2026, 11:00 am

The Guardian view on anonymity in art: the ‘unmasking’ of Banksy and Ferrante should stop | Editorial

Our fascination with the ‘real’ identities of artists and writers is revealing about attitudes to fame and authorship

This week, contemporary art’s worst-kept secret was exposed when street artist Banksy was revealed to be 52-year-old Robin Gunningham, thanks to an 8,000-word investigation by Reuters. This would have been big news had the Mail on Sunday not got there first nearly two decades ago. Still, it made headlines.

The previous week, thousands of book lovers expressed their grief at the announcement on X of the death of Italian novelist Elena Ferrante, supposedly by her translator Ann Goldstein. In fact, it was the work of infamous Italian hoaxer Tommaso Debenedetti, who had set up an account in Goldstein’s name, and who pulled the same trick in 2022.

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Published: March 20, 2026, 6:25 pm

The Guardian view on meningitis in Kent: we must not take public health systems for granted | Editorial

This frightening outbreak is not yet over, and serves as a reminder of why plans to manage infectious diseases exist

The public health measures taken in response to this month’s meningitis outbreak in Kent so far appear to be working. Two young people have tragically died – one a sixth-former in Faversham, the other a student at the University of Kent. In the Canterbury area, where cases have been identified at four schools and two universities, thousands of lives have been disrupted and many people are understandably afraid. With 18 confirmed cases, and 11 others being investigated, this is the largest cluster of UK cases in a generation.

The genes of the meningitis B (MenB) strain of bacteria behind this outbreak are being examined in laboratories. In Kent, they appear to have caused septicaemia, or blood poisoning, as well as infection of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Scientists do not fully understand what causes meningococcal bacteria – which are present in one in 10 people’s bodies without causing illness – to become invasive. Meningitis remains a mysterious as well as a frightening illness, due to its sudden onset and the risk of death.

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Published: March 20, 2026, 6:30 pm

Brighton v Liverpool: Premier League – live

⚽ Updates from the 12.30pm GMT Premier League kick-off
⚽ Ten things to look out for | Table | Mail Scott

Arne Slot speaks frankly to TNT. “You cannot compare a home game, a Champions League night against Galatasaray, to Brighton away … but you have to take the positives … we know we face a different opponent today … we have to be even better to get a result here today … [Brighton] have good players … their manager is always able to come up with a very good game plan … his players are able to execute that plan … very intense … only play once a week … they can train on that game plan … it is important to have two very good goalkeepers and we have that … there is hardly any room for error any more … we have made quite a few errors this season … the main ones was dropping points in extra time … now we are in this situation … though I don’t think we have to win eight, we have to play every game as a final … get the most out of the game possible … let’s see what it is today.”

In last week’s episode …

Published: March 21, 2026, 2:21 pm

Breezy Johnson pipped for gold at World Cup Finals as Aicher puts pressure on Shiffrin

• Johnson edged as Pirovano clinches downhill globe

• Italian wins third straight race to seal discipline

• Aicher trims Shiffrin’s lead to 95 points overall

Italy’s Laura Pirovano claimed the women’s downhill World Cup title with victory in Lillehammer on Saturday, as Emma Aicher closed the gap on leader Mikaela Shiffrin in the overall standings.

The 28-year-old Pirovano had never even finished on a World Cup podium until earlier this month.

Published: March 21, 2026, 1:47 pm

Men’s March Madness roundup: UCLA overcome broken tooth and stubborn UCF to advance

• Iowa State’s Final Four hopes dealt injury blow

• Miami (Ohio)’s charmed season ended by Tennessee

• Kentucky reach second round after OT thriller

Mick Cronin raised a plastic cup to another UCLA tournament victory with an energy drink he brought with him to the podium.

“I’m not Coach Pitino,” he said.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:40 pm

Women’s March Madness roundup: Baylor rally past Nebraska on chalky day one

• Better seeds go 16-0 on Friday as chalk prevails

• Baylor erase nine-point fourth-quarter deficit

• LSU, Texas and TCU roll in dominant openers

Taliah Scott scored 15 points and Baylor rallied from a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter, making 11 of 14 free throws down the stretch, to beat Nebraska 67-62 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

After leading 19-11 after the first quarter, the sixth-seeded Bears (25-8) went cold and were down 50-41 with 9:33 to play in their March Madness opener. Baylor then turned up the full-court press and forced six turnovers by Nebraska in the final quarter.

Published: March 21, 2026, 5:38 am

Wimbledon introduces video reviews for players to challenge umpire calls

• Reviews allowed for double bounces and double hits

• Players not able to challenge electronic line calls

Wimbledon will introduce video review technology this year that will allow players to challenge judgment calls made by the chair umpire. Players will not be able to challenge the decisions of the electronic line calling (ELC) system that was introduced at Wimbledon last year, but video reviews will be available to check other scenarios, such as whether a ball has bounced twice or touched a player’s racket or body.

“Players will be allowed to review specific judgment calls made by the chair umpire (such as, for example, ‘not-up’, ‘foul shot’, ‘touch’) either on a point-ending call, when a player immediately stops play, or immediately after the completion of a point (in the case of hindrance),” the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) said. “Players will not be limited in the number of reviews they can request.”

Published: March 21, 2026, 10:41 am

Olympic champion boxer Lin Yu-ting cleared to return to ring after gender ruling

• Chinese Taipei boxer can compete in female category

• Lin won gold at last international event in Paris 2024

The Olympic featherweight champion Lin Yu-ting has been cleared to compete in the female category at World Boxing events, the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association (CTBA) has announced, hailing the news as a “tremendous relief”. Lin and the Algerian Imane Khelif were embroiled in a gender row at the 2024 Paris Games, where they won Olympic titles in separate weight classes.

World Boxing, a body recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), confirmed the decision to allow Lin back into the ring after its medical experts ruled t the 30-year-old was female. It means Lin can compete in the Asian Boxing Championships in the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, starting next Saturday, her first international event since Paris.

Published: March 21, 2026, 11:59 am

Sardar Azmoun reportedly left out of Iran squad for disloyalty to government

• Striker will not play in World Cup warmup games

• Azmoun posted picture of him with Dubai’s ruler

Sardar Azmoun has been omitted from the Iran squad for two World Cup warm-ups with Iranian media reports indicating that the striker had been expelled from the national team for a perceived act of disloyalty to the government.

Azmoun, who has scored 57 goals in 91 internationals, was the most notable absentee from a 35-man squad named by the head coach, Amir Ghalenoei, on Friday for friendlies against Nigeria and Costa Rica in the Turkish city of Antalya.

Published: March 21, 2026, 10:20 am

Jessie Diggins seals extraordinary fourth World Cup overall title before retirement on home snow

• Diggins, 34, clinches fourth World Cup overall title

• American seals rare feat in Lake Placid season finale

• Minnesota-born star to retire after dominant season

No woman from outside Europe had ever captured the cross-country skiing World Cup overall title until Jessie Diggins in 2021. Now she’s won it four times.

The Minnesota-born star clinched yet another crystal globe in the twilight of her glittering career on Friday, securing the season crown with a fifth-place finish in the 10km classic at the World Cup finals in Lake Placid, New York. Diggins made it a mathematical certainty with two races remaining in the season-ending weekend, giving her a third consecutive overall title and fourth in total.

Published: March 20, 2026, 8:07 pm

USA’s Jordan Anthony wins 60m world gold after his blood clot ‘the size of a soccer ball’

• Clot appeared in his arm after injection in wrong place

• ‘I will never let the devil stop me from getting a gold’

On a night of dizzying speed and freakish drama, track and field found itself a new sprint sensation. It came in the form of Jordan Anthony, a 21-year-old American with one heck of a story, along with the first global gold medal around his neck.

“The devil is always going to try, but I will never let him stop me from getting a gold medal,” he said after winning one of the great world indoor championships 60m races of all time in 6.41secs, the fourth-fastest time in history.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:13 pm

‘This is the saddest moment’: families search for loved ones on Eid after Kabul hospital strike

At least 400 killed in Pakistan’s strike on drug rehab centre, Taliban say, with families searching unmarked mass graves

Sohrab Faqiri spent Eid, the Muslim festival to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, looking for the grave of his brother, killed in a massive Pakistan airstrike on Kabul this week.

Pakistan’s bombardment campaign, on what it says is terrorist and military infrastructure in neighbouring Afghanistan, appeared to have gone catastrophically wrong. A rehabilitation centre for drug addicts was hit on Monday night, according to the United Nations and the Afghan authorities. The UN’s preliminary death toll is 143 people, while the Taliban administration puts the figure at more than 400 dead.

Published: March 21, 2026, 8:00 am

More than 230 people rescued as flash flooding hits Hawaii and fears dam could fail

Heavy rains have pummeled the Hawaiian island of Oahu and triggered the worst flooding the island has in 20 years

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Towering flash floods and an imminent dam failure in the northern part of Oahu triggered mass rescues and evacuation warnings in Hawaii on Friday, as the state continued contending with a powerful storm this week.

The waters came on quickly in the middle of the night, and videos on social media captured inundated streets and cars being swallowed by the muddy flood waters.

Published: March 21, 2026, 5:44 am

Doggy drinks and subsidised vet visits: Paris’s mayoral race goes canine crazy

The densely dog-populated city will soon elect a new mayor and candidates want pet-owners on their side

In a race that is expected to come down to a few thousand votes, every last one counts – including, for the candidates seeking to become the next mayor of Paris, those of the French capital’s disgruntled dog owners.

Both favourites in Sunday’s second-round vote, the leftwing frontrunner Emmanuel Grégoire and the former conservative culture minister, Rachida Dati, have promised an array of canine-friendly measures if they win – and for good reason.

Published: March 21, 2026, 5:00 am

Woman, 80, receives probation and no jail time over San Francisco crash that killed four

Mary Fong Lau crashed into bus shelter in 2024, causing deaths of two parents and two infant children

The 80-year-old woman that prosecutors found responsible for a car crash that killed a family of four in San Francisco has been sentenced to two years of probation and will have her driver’s license suspended.

Lau will receive no jail time and will not be subject to home confinement. As part of her sentence, she must complete 200 hours of community service.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:11 pm

Musk responsible for Twitter investors’ stock dropping when he bought company, jury rules

California jurors hand win to investors who sued billionaire saying he publicly disparaged social media platform in 2022

A California jury has ruled that Elon Musk is responsible for Twitter investors’ stock plummeting when he sought to buy the social media platform for $44bn in 2022. Jurors handed the win to a group of investors who sued the billionaire saying he publicly disparaged the company with the aim of bringing down Twitter’s stock price to get a better bargain.

The trial, which began earlier this month in federal court in San Francisco, focused on whether Musk intended to move the market with his comments. During a six-month period in 2022, after his offer to buy Twitter, he posted constantly to his millions of followers that the social network was rife with bots that produced spam and created fake accounts.

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:54 am

Ukraine war briefing: Children ordered to leave key Ukrainian stronghold as Russians advance

Compulsory evacuation of children begins in Sloviansk. Kyiv still expects first tranche of 90bn euro loan despite Hungary veto. What we know on day 1,487

Published: March 21, 2026, 1:34 am

‘Something I’ve never felt since Covid. It was scarier’: the shock and pain of Kent’s meningitis outbreak

How infections linked to a nightclub escalated into a public health incident requiring a national response is a puzzle experts are still grappling with

Tyra Skinner had already been violently sick three times when doctors at Kent’s William Harvey hospital realised something was badly wrong. The 20-year-old was rushed into critical care, racked with a pounding headache, a stiff neck and excruciating pain – the hallmark symptoms of meningitis, the disease that had already claimed two young lives in Kent.

“She could hardly move, she was in a foetal position. She was so cramped up and sore,” her father, Dale Skinner, 42, told the Guardian. “It was horrendous, to be honest, to see her so helpless and in so much pain.”

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

US judge blocks Pentagon’s restrictions on press after New York Times lawsuit

Lawsuit alleged changes gave DoD free rein to punish reporters and outlets over coverage it did not like

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A federal judge has blocked key portions of the Pentagon’s press access policy, siding with the New York Times and ruling that the Trump administration’s controversial policy was unconstitutional.

The policy, which was introduced in October, prohibited journalists from soliciting information that the defense department didn’t directly provide, and revoked the credentials of any outlet that didn’t sign on. News outlets including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg News and the Atlantic joined TV networks in refusing to sign. Of 56 news outlets in the Pentagon Press Association, only one agreed to sign onto the new policy.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:57 pm

New Orleans attorneys found guilty in plot to stage vehicle accidents for payouts

Prosecutors say they paid ‘slammers’ to intentionally crash into tractor-trailers and file fraudulent lawsuits

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A federal jury in New Orleans has found two personal injury attorneys guilty of involving themselves in a scheme to stage collisions with 18-wheelers and then collect settlement payouts.

The lawyers, Jason Giles and former Hollywood stuntwoman Vanessa Motta, were found guilty on Friday of fraud, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, local news outlets WVUE and WWL Louisiana – a Guardian reporting partner – reported. Their law firms were convicted of related charges.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:44 pm

‘It was our little idyll – until the solar farm landed’: the battle raging in the heart of the British countryside

In one corner, clean energy champion Ed Miliband. In the other, residents – and Reform politicians – outraged at plans for more large-scale solar farms in Lincolnshire than anywhere else in the UK

As night descends on the grand offices of Lincolnshire county council, everything appears orderly and calm. Paintings of long-forgotten councillors and dignitaries stare out into an empty drawing room. The council chamber is silent and dark. Bored receptionists glance at their phones while a handful of admin staff hunch over glowing screens. But a rebellion is brewing in the office of the council leader, Sean Matthews, who took charge last May, when Reform replaced the Conservative old guard. The affable former royal protection officer is plotting an apparently radical campaign of civil disobedience against a series of giant solar farms planned for Lincolnshire.

Despite a quarter of a century in the Metropolitan police, Matthews is willing to break the law to stop solar developers. He is planning to lie down in front of the bulldozers. “They can arrest me – I’ve arrested plenty of people,” he says, leaning forward on a sofa. “It’s much bigger than me and my criminal record. For goodness sake, it’s the future of the county, it’s the future of our land. I am passionate about that and I will do what I can.”

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘It’s not sustainable’: US farmers reeling as Iran war pushes fertilizer costs up

Closure of strait of Hormuz – a key fertilizer production and transportation route – has squeezed farmers as prices jump

Rodney Bushmeyer has been farming as long as he can remember. Bushmeyer’s father was a farmer, as was his grandfather.

The family-run Bushmeyer Farms in Illinois dates back more than 100 years, when his ancestors came to the US from Germany. They acquired the first 80 acres cost-free as homesteaders, cleared the land, and worked it.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:00 am

Heatwave scorching US west ‘virtually impossible’ without climate crisis, say scientists

Unseasonably warm and even dangerous temperatures this week were up to 30F above average for the time of year

The record-breaking heatwave scorching the US west this week would have been “virtually impossible” if not for the climate crisis, a team of scientists has determined.

Millions of Americans from the Pacific coast to the Rockies baked under unseasonably warm and even dangerous temperatures this week, with temperatures up to 30F (17C) above average for the time of year.

Published: March 20, 2026, 7:01 am

‘Hybrid organ’: how a union of trees and fungi could revolutionise forest management

A US startup supplies spray for fast-growing loblolly pines with the hope of increasing biodiversity – and reducing the need for artificial fertiliser

At a commercial tree nursery near Evans, western Louisiana, 5m pine seedlings are packed on to 12 vast circular irrigation tables, each as wide as a football field. Last September, many of these young trees were sprayed with what looked like muddy water.

The substance was in fact a liquid extract teeming with hundreds of species of wild soil fungi. Brad Ouseman, the nursery manager, is confident he will see results from this fungal inoculation, which is intended to improve yields and reduce the need for artificial fertilisers.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

Bill to fund US homeland security fails again as concern grows about airport lines

Proposal fails to advance in Senate amid growing concerns about long lines to get through screening at some airports

A bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security failed to advance on Friday in the Senate amid growing concerns about long lines to get through screening at some of the country’s biggest airports.

Democrats declined to provide the support needed to move the funding measure toward final passage. Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said he would offer an alternative measure on Saturday to fund just the Transportation Security Administration, which screens passengers and luggage for hazardous items. That too is likely to fail as lawmakers hold a rare weekend session.

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:13 am

Nicholas Brendon, Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor, dies at 54

Family says actor, who played Xander in hit TV series, died on Friday ‘in his sleep of natural causes’

Nicholas Brendon, the actor best known for playing Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has died. He was 54.

Brendon’s family issued a statement saying that he died on Friday “in his sleep of natural causes”.

Published: March 21, 2026, 1:59 am

Six people sent to hospital after man threatened to stab Boston bus driver

Man wielding knife also tried to slash tires and taken into custody, with two transit officers and a police officer injured

Six people were brought to the hospital after a man wielding a butcher knife threatened to stab a bus driver and tried to slash tires at a Boston transit station on Friday before being taken into custody, authorities said.

Among those injured were two transit officers, a Boston police officer and the suspect in the case, said Richard Sullivan, superintendent of police for the Massachusetts Bay transportation authority. Sullivan, who briefed reporters at a news conference, said he wasn’t aware of the other two reported as injured by Boston’s emergency medical services agency.

Published: March 20, 2026, 8:12 pm

Donald Trump ‘very surprised’ Australia declined to send troops to strait of Hormuz amid fuel crisis

US president claims he ‘always says yes’ to Australia, Japan and South Korea, after saying he didn’t need help from trio of countries earlier this week

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Donald Trump says he is “very surprised” Australia has not sent warships to aid in opening the strait of Hormuz as the blockade of the key strategic route for global oil supply continues to affect fuel prices.

“I was very surprised,” the US president said in Washington on Friday when asked what he took issue with regarding Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Published: March 21, 2026, 4:59 am

Mexico’s monarch butterfly population jumps 64%, offering hope for at-risk species

The insects covered its largest area since 2018, despite threats from habitat loss, climate crisis and pesticides

The population of monarch butterflies in Mexico increased 64% this winter, compared with the same period in 2025, offering a glimmer of hope for an insect considered at risk of extinction.

The figures, released this week by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico, showed that the area occupied by monarchs expanded to 2.93 hectares (7.24 acres) of forest from 1.79 hectares (4.42 acres) the previous winter, the largest coverage since 2018.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:41 pm

‘Yes to fields of wheat, no to fields of iron’: how the world’s greenest country soured on solar

In Denmark, the spread of solar panels has become a divisive issue among voters, especially in rural areas

In one telling of the story, the golden fields of a proud farming nation are under attack. Besieged by an industrial sprawl of solar panels, they are being smothered at the behest of an urban elite.

That narrative has failed to thrive in conservative heartlands such as Texas and Hungary, which have embraced solar power while lambasting green rules. But it is taking root in Denmark, the most climate-ambitious nation on Earth. “We say yes to fields of wheat,” said Inger Støjberg, the leader of the rightwing populist Denmark Democrats in a speech in 2024. “And we say no to fields of iron!”

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:00 pm

Anger grows among UK ministers amid fears Iran war could jeopardise Britain’s fragile finances

Some in cabinet in despair over possible impact of war begun by Donald Trump, who branded Nato allies ‘cowards’

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Donald Trump has branded the UK and other Nato allies “cowards” as anger grows among cabinet ministers that his war in Iran could jeopardise Britain’s fragile finances.

Senior members of the UK government are in despair about the potential effects on the economy, with experts warning of higher energy prices and increased mortgage and borrowing costs.

Published: March 21, 2026, 12:54 pm

Fire experts ‘kept awake’ over growing hazard of lithium-ion batteries

Fire service warns ubiquity of batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations

Lithium-ion batteries represent a new technological hazard that one fire science expert has said keeps him awake at night, as fire service chiefs warn the ubiquity of the batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations.

The blaze that devastated a historic building in Glasgow and resulted in the closure of Central Station, Scotland’s largest rail interchange, is believed to have started in a shop selling vapes, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries. Glasgow’s Central Station has since reopened.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:11 am

‘I’ve learned first-hand how evil is tolerated’: Colm Tóibín on living in the US under Trump

The Brooklyn author on immigration and the inspiration behind his latest collection of stories

I often write the first paragraph of a story in a notebook, add to it every so often or leave it there to see if something might emerge from it. In 2008, in San Francisco, I went with three friends on a hike near Muir Woods overlooking the Pacific Ocean. At the summit, there was a kind of lodge where you could get a bed for the night and use the kitchen to make your own dinner. The view was spectacular.

As we climbed, I began to imagine a character, an Irish guy who had made up his mind to go home. This was his last big outing in the landscape. He had been working as a plumber. Dotted in the Bay Area were houses where he had repaired pipes and installed new sinks and toilets and washing machines. This was his legacy in America. He was someone who could be depended on in an emergency. But he was illegal and he was going home.

Published: March 21, 2026, 9:00 am

‘On the threshold of a new age’: inside the New Museum’s $82m expansion and landmark new exhibition in New York

After a two year closure, the museum doubles its gallery space with a 700-plus object show examining how humans and technology shape each other

Right now on the Bowery, a busy Manhattan thoroughfare, two supersized lovers embrace several stories up into the blue spring sky. Strapped against the New Museum’s industrial mesh exterior, the pair are frozen in a state of plasticized affection. Their grinning, almost smooching, heads pressed close and glossy torsos entwined. A massive hand, safe as a catcher’s mitt, encases them both, splaying wide across their waists as though to stop them crashing to the sidewalk.

The site-specific sculpture is titled Art Lovers, a work by Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self, and marks the architectural “kiss point” between the New Museum’s original building and a new expansion. Today, 21 March, the New Museum publicly debuts its enlarged architectural anatomy after two years of being closed to the public. Designed by Rem Koolhaas, the OMA founder, and partner Shohei Shigematsu, the $82m project affixes a jagged, glassy jewel to the original building, effectively doubling the footprint to 119,700 sq ft. At a media preview this week, Shigematsu likened the alignment of the two distinct buildings – one he called more “vertical and introverted”, the other “more horizontal and extroverted” – to the search for a romantic partner. “You know how difficult it is to find a perfect pair,” he said. “Very difficult.”

Published: March 21, 2026, 11:06 am

‘Weirdness, paranoia and extremity’: why HBO’s Neighbors is TV’s most fascinating show

The Josh Safdie-produced docuseries draws us into a bizarre variety of alternately relatable and scarily alienating neighbor disputes

Once upon a time, I worked as a local reporter in small-town Montana. The job, in which I had to make actual cold calls and regularly attend local council meetings, was extremely instructive; nothing teaches you about the idiosyncrasies of people like showing up at their door and hearing their community concerns. During my time there, we ran several extremely in-the-weeds stories about a rancher’s proposed water bottling plant, which was vehemently opposed by neighbors for its offensive sight and sound (and, secondarily, potential pollution). The details of the fight – and it was a very contentious fight – are hazy now, but the lesson is not: if there is one thing I learned from local reporting, it’s that nothing, absolutely nothing, turns people into the most ghoulish versions of themselves like threats, real or perceived, to one’s property.

I recalled this water bottling brouhaha a lot while watching Neighbors, a brilliant new docuseries on HBO which captures this lesson in its most contemporary, cancerous American iteration better than perhaps anything I’ve ever seen. (Taylor Sheridan’s mega-popular drama Yellowstone, essentially a property rights soap for dads, doesn’t come close.) Over five riveting episodes – the sixth and final premieres tonight – Neighbors takes a hyper-stylized, fish-eye lens to disputes of proximity and the fuzzy limits of personal space. The issues at hand are at once mundane and completely unhinged: a gay couple in Kokomo, Indiana, are furious that their neighbor has built a farm, with its attendant goat smell, in their cul-de-sac; a retired state senator in Texas resents the woman across the street for building a nine-foot-tall concrete “cartel” wall around her house; two tanned, blond women in Florida viciously fight – physically, emotionally, via competing surveillance systems – over a cumulative 35 sq ft strip of grass between their two driveways. It is extravagantly petty, extremely stressful (naturally – executive producers include A24 and Marty Supreme team Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein) and often completely unhinged. It is easily the best TV I’ve watched this year.

Published: March 20, 2026, 9:03 am

Don’t mention the M-word: are mutant X-Men about to show up en masse in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

An intriguing chat about warped DNA in the record-breaking trailer for the new Spider-Man movie could mean a host of long-awaited arrivals in the MCU

There was a time when the mere mention of the term “mutant” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was frowned upon. Rival studio 20th Century Fox owned the rights to the X-Men and with it the whole idea of a parallel branch of humanity, which meant superheroes were contractually obliged to have received their powers from somewhere else. Radioactive accidents, experimental serums, infinity stones, the bite of an unusually committed arachnid: Marvel tried them all, but left the mutation thing alone. Occasionally, comic book icons such as Scarlet Witch were retconned in the MCU to remove their X-gene origins, but for the most part, the very notion of mutation seemed to be placed under narrative quarantine – as if this were a door the studio had quietly agreed not to open.

This week saw the record-breaking release of the debut teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it was immediately clear that something had changed. We all know the X-Men are coming to the MCU: Deadpool and Wolverine have already had their own movies, while various mutants have turned up in post-credit scenes and brief multiversal detours. Now Spidey seems to be edging close to the same territory.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:24 pm

Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat review – the episode with the sex toy is stomach turning

A corporate getaway is the new setting for this hoax reality show in which all but one person is an actor. Luckily, that person has a real ‘captain fun’ attitude – even when faced with icky situations

In 2023, Freevee (owned by Amazon) aired Jury Duty, a hoax reality show starring an unsuspecting member of the American public who was unaware that everyone else deciding the outcome of a trial in an LA courthouse alongside him was in fact an actor. It was frequently ridiculous – not least when X-Men actor James Marsden was parachuted in as a member of the jury. It did, however, have a lot of heart, and a lovable mark in the form of Ronald Gladden, a sweet man who blindly followed the “hero’s journey” he was unaware was being meticulously plotted by producers, and who took the eventual reveal very well. Some questioned the ethics of this Truman Show-esque premise, although Gladden seemed fairly undamaged by his accidental fame. Certainly, you imagine that his prize – $100,000 and a two-year deal with Amazon – would have helped to soften any initial feelings of “WTF”.

And so to season two, which retains the Jury Duty brand name but takes place at an annual retreat for Rockin’ Grandma’s hot sauce, a company that – spoiler alert – doesn’t exist. Taking the starring role this time is twentysomething Anthony Norman, an office temp who quickly becomes the company’s most beloved employee. It is, we learn, the final Rockin’ Grandma’s retreat for CEO Doug Womack, who is set to retire and hand over the company to his son, the lackadaisical, cod-Jamaican-accented Dougie, a former ska band member who is somewhere between Chet Hanks and the Dude from The Big Lebowski. Like Gladden before him, Norman is kind and obliging to a fault, and a big fan of organised fun – the perfect candidate to take over the running of the retreat when HR boss Kevin taps out after a humiliating social faux pas. One minute Norman’s the new guy – the next he’s running around in a yachting cap, declaring himself the new “captain fun”. For somebody who thought he was merely taking on a short-term job – and being filmed for a documentary about the corporate world – his seemingly unending reserves of enthusiasm and commitment to the dysfunctional world of Rockin’ Grandma’s are commendable.

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:00 am

‘We didn’t want to play the game’: how Ladytron became unlikely pop survivors

From electroclash pioneers to dancefloor-fillers via viral TikTok fame thanks to their hit Seventeen, the Liverpool band are back with a new album and another metamorphosis

It was October 2001 in New York City, and Mira Aroyo and bandmate Reuben Wu were invited to DJ a new party. The gritty, 200 capacity Luxx on Brooklyn’s Grand Street specialised in forgotten queer electro sounds from the 1980s. The party’s name? Electroclash.

“It was us, Peaches, people from Berlin,” remembers Aroyo. Larry Tee, the Atlanta DJ and RuPaul collaborator, had booked them for their love of overlooked gems by Gina X or Bobby O. “It was hedonistic, nonbinary, flamboyant.”

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:55 pm

BTS: Arirang review – the world’s biggest pop band return with dumb fun and downright weirdness

(Big Hit Music)
Ending a hiatus that began in 2022, the septet recapture a distinctiveness that had been threatening to ebb away

The general consensus seems to be that as BTS’s commercial stock has gone stratospheric – more than 500m units sold worldwide, including over 104bn streams, making them the bestselling Asian act of all time – the actual music has become more and more irrelevant. Before taking their hiatus in 2022 to fulfil their mandatory military service in South Korea, their saccharine, English-language bops such as Dynamite and Butter – while gargantuan global hits – had smothered the K-pop-specific idiosyncrasies that peppered their earlier material. By 2020’s double whammy of Map of the Soul: 7 and Be, the band’s early years as a hip-hop-focused collective were a distant memory, and thanks to a more westernised sound and studio cast list, so was their identity as a Korean act.

On the eagerly anticipated Arirang – pointedly named after a Korean folk song dating back to 1896, and presented with the tagline “born in Korea, playing for the world” – the septet do their best to right those wrongs. Crucially, it manages to capture the K-pop spirit of experimentation while welding it to a litany of memorable hooks. And when western collaborators are brought in, they’re interestingly off-kilter, including outsider rapper-producer Jpegmafia, and producer El Guincho, known for his work with Björk and Rosalía.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:29 pm

Add to playlist: the sharply observed electro-twee of the Femcels and the week’s best new tracks

Following in the footsteps of Heavenly and Tiger Trap the duo’s high-tempo electroclash-indie-pop deftly explores young womanhood in 2020s London

From London
Recommended if you like Heavenly, CSS, the Teenagers
Up next I Have to Get Hotter out now

The Femcels’ music is euphoric and depressive, sometimes ironic but mostly sincere, often high-tempo, and all delivered with wired, unvarnished vocals. In that sense, it is 80s and 90s twee reincarnate; move past their band’s shitposty name and you’ll find that Rowan Miles and Gabriella Turton have a lot to offer when it comes to exploring the chills and thrills of young womanhood in 2020s London.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:00 pm

Grace Ives: Girlfriend review – bedroom-pop auteur goes widescreen for a gorgeous sobriety epic

(True Panther/Capitol)
The New Yorker’s third album leaves behind her DIY origins to channel cult pop classics by Lorde and Sky Ferreira

New Yorker Grace Ives broke out as a bedroom pop artist, self-producing 2nd, her 2019 debut, on her Roland MC-505 and carefully expanding her sound for 2022’s appealingly messy Janky Star. Her third album abandons caution in windswept, hyperdetailed songs that streak by like big city streetlights and shimmer with cosmic awe.

Ives escaped her bedroom in more than one sense. Janky Star reflected her development of a healthier relationship to substances, yet she hit new lows after its release, making sobriety non-negotiable. She went to write in California, finding safety in a fresh context rather than trying to change alone at home. Her determination and vulnerability fuel Girlfriend, which shares the conspiratorial sweetness and broken-mirror glitter of cult pop classics by Lorde (Melodrama) and Sky Ferreira (Night Time, My Time).

Published: March 20, 2026, 9:30 am

Chain of Ideas by Ibram X Kendi review – anatomy of a conspiracy theory

This careful analysis of so-called ‘great replacement theory’ offers a lens through which to view our broken politics

Informationsüberflutung? Weltschmerz? I’ve been searching and I don’t think even the Germans have a word that fully captures just how overwhelming the news cycle is right now. The zone has been well and truly flooded; just as you start trying to process one shocking event, something new hits the headlines.

Chain of Ideas, a new book by professor Ibram X Kendi, doesn’t provide a one-world encapsulation of our modern woes. But, in a meticulously researched 500 pages, it lays out an essential framework for parsing current events.

Published: March 20, 2026, 7:00 am

The Names author Florence Knapp: ‘I’d love to write with Maya Angelou’s warmth’

The debut author on the brilliance of Charlotte Brontë, coming late to Harper Lee, and aspiring to write like Claire Keegan

My earliest reading memory
The summer I was four, my mum read EB White’s Charlotte’s Web to me and my older sister. I don’t recall much of the story, only that my mum was unable to go on reading through her tears. And when a relative took over, after just a few pages, she too had to pass the book on, this time to my father to try and finish dry-eyed. That afternoon, at a subconscious, cellular level, I absorbed something about the emotional impact a well-told story can have on both children and adults, and how it can gather everyone to the same imagined space.

My favourite book growing up
I loved Shirley Hughes’s books, for the pictures as much as the words. Her illustrations of unmade beds and busy kitchen tables invite you right into the heart of family life and were a reassuringly cosy backdrop to whatever drama might unfold. Moving Molly was a favourite, and stoked a lifelong nostalgia for the details that make a place home.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

Resident Evil at 30: how Capcom’s horror opus has survived and thrived

From owing a debt to obscure Japanese horror Sweet Home to the influence of Aliens and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the franchise continues to petrify players three decades on

To many of us playing and writing about video games in the 1990s, Resident Evil seemed to come out of nowhere. The emerging PlayStation and Saturn consoles were all about slick, bright arcade conversions – the shiny thrills of Daytona and Tekken – and Japanese publisher Capcom was in a rut of coin-op conversions and endless sequels to Street Fighter and Mega Man. Scary games were rare at the time and mostly confined to the PC. So when the news of a horror title named Biohazard (the Japanese name for the series) started to emerge in 1995, it caught the attention of games journalists as it seemed radically out of step with prevailing trends. Games were about power, but as early demos quickly revealed, Resident Evil was about vulnerability.

Thirty years later, it’s still here. The series has sold more than 180m copies worldwide, with 11 core titles and dozens of spinoffs and remakes, as well as film, television and anime tie-ins. Its characters and monsters are icons, its tropes now embedded in game design practice. What has allowed it to not only survive but flourish in such a rapidly changing industry? Why do we still let it scare us?

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

Tim Dowling: our campaign to become theatregoers isn’t going well…

My wife is horrified by the price of tickets, and I get triggered if I sit too near the stage due to an unfortunate incident at the circus

At the start of the year, my wife launched a campaign for us to go to the theatre more. It bears many of the hallmarks of my 2018 campaign for us to go to the theatre more, which failed miserably after my wife pronounced it stupid. She claims not to remember this.

My wife’s campaign is hampered by her refusal to accept the kind of outlay that modern theatre-going requires. She comes into the kitchen and places her open laptop in front of me.

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Validation was an insatiable monster’: Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters’ punk-rock return – and life after his infidelity

In his first newspaper interview after fathering a child outside his marriage, Grohl discusses his changed outlook, his grief for Taylor Hawkins, and the 430 therapy sessions he’s had

‘I’m just going to recline.” Weighing up the seating options in a luxury London hotel suite, Dave Grohl opts for the sofa. He lays his head and swings his legs round until his black leather boots are resting on the upholstery, and clasps his hands across his stomach. Punk-rock disregard for shoe etiquette aside, it’s the classic pose of the psychoanalysed. “I’ve been in therapy six days a week for 70 weeks,” he says. “I did the math the other day: over 430 sessions.”

Even by US standards, that is a lot – but if anyone needed to work out who they are and why they were doing what they were doing, it was Grohl. Nirvana ended traumatically after the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, but their drummer Grohl quickly formed a new band, Foo Fighters, stepping up to frontman and turning them into the definitive stadium rockers of the new century with hits such as Everlong, Best of You and The Pretender. Grohl was often described as “the nicest man in rock”, a label his team tells me he dislikes, but he was certainly genial and seemed to be settling into middle age with hobbyist projects – documentary series, memoir, horror-comedy film – between a series of world tours and middle-ranking Foo Fighters albums. He had married second wife Jordyn Blum in 2003 and they’d had three daughters together. Bassist Nate Mendel tells me: “When we were first rehearsing in the mid-90s, Dave said: I just want this band to be low-drama, and for it to be fun.”

Published: March 20, 2026, 5:00 am

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump Pearl Harbor joke: ‘Everything he knows about it begins and ends with the Ben Affleck movie’

Late-night hosts panned Trump’s joke about the 1941 attack, addressed new unredacted Epstein emails and talked popular puppy names

With The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on hiatus until at least 27 March, late-night hosts on Thursday discussed Donald Trump’s snafu while meeting Japan’s prime minister, his caginess over Iran, and new findings in the Epstein investigations.

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:40 pm

The Salt Path author published earlier book under alias, despite debut claims

Raynor Winn’s lawyers have confirmed she published a previous book in 2012, years before the memoir that won a £10,000 prize for debut writers

Author Raynor Winn published a book under a pseudonym six years before her 2018 memoir The Salt Path, despite repeatedly describing the later work as her debut, it has emerged.

Winn received widespread acclaim for The Salt Path, including a £10,000 prize for debut writers.

Published: March 20, 2026, 2:05 pm

‘Tastes of salt, smells of coffee’: why Trieste is one of Italy’s best food cities

The historic port is a cosmopolitan gateway to global flavours and traditions. And it’s barely on the tourist trail. Take a tour …

Many years ago, I swapped languages with a young woman from Trieste. It was during one of our half-English, half-Italian practice hours that she introduced the idea of Trieste, on a map, as possessing the shape of a stomach. She described her city (which is also a province) as being suspended: pressed by the sea on one side, enveloped by Slovenia and the Karst hills on the other, with a short oesophagus attaching it to the body of Italy. She also suggested I read la Conscienza di Zeno – Zeno’s Conscience – Italo Svevo’s devilishly funny hymn to procrastination, self-delusion and walking around in search of a suitable cafe, and warned me about the ruffian wind.

It would be almost two decades before I finally visited Trieste, bringing with me enough anticipation to tempt disappointment (unfounded) and the itinerary of a food writer. I carried the image of a stomach too, fitting in so many ways for this remarkable food city, not least for making its geography vivid, which in turn explains so much about its history. Once a coastal fishing village, colonised by the Romans, raided by the Venetians, entrusted to the Habsburg monarchy in Vienna (for four centuries, which included a prolonged heyday), appended to the newly united Kingdom of Italy, fought over, briefly independent, handed back to Italy in 1954, from which point it developed into what is today one of the most outward looking and dynamic cities in Italy. Trieste, it seems, has digested and assimilated, meaning its complex history is reflected in the architecture, dialect, music, literature, sports, civic nature and multifaceted food culture: surely one of the most intriguing and rewarding in Italy.

Published: March 21, 2026, 8:00 am

The best bike lights in the US to see and be seen

Whether you need a high-powered headlamp for riding at night or daytime lights to make yourself visible at all hours, here are the best options

• I cut up 15 bike locks to find the best in the US. Here are my favorites

• Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things

A bike helmet may protect you in a crash, but lights can help prevent one from happening in the first place. Evidence suggests bike lights can improve rider visibility in traffic, particularly in bright or shifting light, where cyclists can otherwise blend into the background.

That’s why bike lights broadly fall into two categories: high-output headlamps to illuminate the road at night, and daytime running lights to make you more visible to motorists at all hours. Whether you ride to work daily or every now and then for exercise, owning a high-quality light is one of the cheapest investments you can make in two-wheeled safety. Modern LED lights provide impressive brightness and all-day battery life for very little cost or weight penalty, plus convenient charging with the same USB cable your phone uses.

Best daytime front and rear combo:
Trek Ion 100 R and Flare R City Light Set

Best budget combo:
Ascher Ultra Bright USB Rechargeable Bike Light Set

Published: March 20, 2026, 1:30 pm

‘When he turned two we had party hats and cake’: how dogs became the new babies

One in three UK postcodes now has more dogs than children. Meet the Dinkwads (dual income, no kids, with a dog). Plus Tim Dowling’s guide to the best breeds for Dinkwads

Bryan Bell was at home when his one-year-old Patti collapsed, shaking like a leaf in a gale-force tornado. She was having a fit. Bell’s husband, John, was out of the house and he didn’t know what to do. “It was quite a traumatic experience because I didn’t know what was happening,” the 40-year-old PR recalls. Eventually, Patti’s fit subsided and the couple soon found a diagnosis from her doctor: their miniature dachshund had epilepsy. “She’s all medicated now, so it’s under control. But when it happens, you feel like: ‘Is this going to be the fit that’s too much for her little head?’”

Medical scares, behaviour issues and a tendency to eat you out of house and home – many dog owners will tell you that getting a four-legged friend bears more than a few similarities to having a young child. But as birthrates plummet across the world, a curious inverse trend has emerged: couples are getting dogs. Lots and lots of couples, in fact. They’re called Dinkwads (dual income, no kids, with a dog) and their numbers are growing. With one in three postcodes in England home to more dogs than children, you are now more likely to hear the howl of a basset hound than the sound of kids playing. If you counted up all the estimated 13 million dogs in the UK, from pint-sized chihuahuas to lolloping great danes, you’d only be two million short of the total number of children. And unlike the human birthrate – which in Britain hit a record low in 2024 – the number of dogs only looks set to increase.

Published: March 20, 2026, 3:00 pm

Too many, bro? Broaching the subject of men’s lapel messaging at the Oscars

All the talk on red carpet night was of leading guys such as Adrien Brody and Leonardo DiCaprio flashing the bling

While the eyes might be the window to the soul, lapels are certainly doing some talking. On the Oscars red carpet last Sunday night, Hollywood’s leading men flashed a lot of bling on their suits.

From Adrien Brody who wore an astronomically large brooch titled Ulysses, arguably as big as the James Joyce tome is thick, to a clean-shaven Pedro Pascal, who distracted from his newly bare chin with a silk and feather Chanel Camélia brooch, lapels were vying for the spotlight.

Published: March 20, 2026, 12:29 pm

Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for clementine and sesame seed silken tofu | The new vegan

A blast of flavour and crunch makes this an ideal light evening meal

In my cookbook East, I wrote a recipe for silken tofu, a fragile, creamy block, topped with a quick blast of pine nuts, pickled chillies, soy sauce and herbs. It was based closely on a dish at My Neighbours the Dumplings in east London, which I loved deeply. It was fast, delicious and filling, and I ate it over and over again for weeks on end with rice. Since then, I’ve always wanted a variation on the formula, and now, seven years later, here it is. It’s spunky thanks to the citrus and ginger, crunchy thanks to the carrot and sesame seeds, and very worthy of consideration as a midweek meal.

Published: March 21, 2026, 6:00 am

Reheated rivalry: why I’m the champion of leftovers

Bringing food back to life is a great kitchen skill. No, you can’t just microwave it

There is nothing lovelier than seeing a cook do their thing. By “doing their thing”, I do not mean just going about kitchen work – that is often excruciating to watch (why are they cutting onions like that?) I mean doing their thing: their culinary equivalent of a Mastermind subject, that one dish or process that they do so well, and with such evident pride, that the most crotchety backseat cook is forced to shut up.

Take my partner’s method for making fish-finger sandwiches, which involves frying the fish fingers in butter, then creating an in-pan sweatbox to melt artisanal cheese on to them and custom blending condiments. It creates, on average, as much washing up as a full cooked dinner. Others have a special pancake hack or carrot cake recipe, and people tend not to let these things go unnoticed – it’s always my salad dressing, possessive, but we forgive their hubris, because each of us has “A Thing” of our own.

Published: March 20, 2026, 10:00 am

Forget daffs – it’s edible alliums like wild garlic that spell spring in the garden for me

You can pep up your cooking by growing wild garlic, crow garlic and three-cornered leek

Unlike most gardeners, I’m not especially captivated by spring bulbs. I do love that they symbolise the return of fairer weather, but I only have the tulips and narcissi that I adopted when we moved here and, every autumn, I fail to consider planting more to replenish their dwindling numbers. Lucky for me, I also adopted the kind of spring bulb that I’m more inclined towards – because they’re edible. Wild alliums are what I’m really looking for to herald the arrival of spring.

Too many edible wild plants are only edible in theory, in my opinion. I’m mostly of the “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” school of foraging. But that’s not the case when it comes to the most well-known member of this wild allium group. The strongly flavoured leaves of wild garlic (Allium ursinum) cover the woodland floor wherever they are resident, producing clusters of white, star-shaped flowers that are edible too – but leave most of them for the pollinators please! I’m a big fan of this delectable plant and am fortunate enough that it has made a home in my front garden. As with all foraging endeavours, make sure you’re 100% certain you have identified the plant correctly, pick where you are allowed, and always leave plenty behind. Fortunately, when it comes to this group of plants, it’s fairly easy to know if you have gone wrong as all the leaves should smell strongly of and taste like garlic or onions.

Published: March 20, 2026, 11:00 am

‘It does feel like an intimidation campaign’: why is US tech giant Palantir suing a small Swiss magazine?

An investigation by journalists working with Republik magazine may have struck a nerve by suggesting the company has failed in Switzerland

It was over beers on an autumn evening in Zurich in 2024 that a group of journalists with an independent Swiss research collective began to discuss investigating Palantir, one of the world’s biggest tech companies.

Three years earlier, Palantir had advertised that it was setting up a “European hub” in the Swiss municipality of Altendorf, a sleepy town of roughly 7,000 people on the shores of Lake Zurich.

Published: March 20, 2026, 6:00 am

‘We must preserve our traditions’: war shadows Tehran as Iranians mark Nowruz

Iranians in Tehran and across the country cautiously marked the Persian New Year despite the ongoing war entering its fourth week

Heavy strikes echoed across Tehran during one of the country’s biggest holidays as Tel Aviv said it had “acted alone” in striking Iran’s South Pars gasfield, a move that further escalated the conflict.

Donald Trump said on Friday he was considering “winding down” military operations. He wrote on social media: “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives.”

Published: March 21, 2026, 1:23 pm