Will Trump bring peace, or more bombs? Shady speculators seem to bet right every time | Nesrine Malik

The president may not be benefiting directly from betting markets, but he has encouraged a culture that treats politics like a casino floor

Odd things are happening in the markets. Last Monday, 15 minutes before Donald Trump posted an announcement that “productive talks” with Iran had taken place, oil traders placed half a billion dollars’ worth of bets on the future price of oil. Trump’s statement triggered a drop in crude oil prices, and it seems as if some people knew that the announcement was coming, and so a profitable wager was made. Do not be envious; some people are just born lucky.

We do not know if the transactions were made with prior knowledge of political developments, but it’s a hell of a coincidence. It all appears “abnormal for sure”, an oil analyst told the BBC.

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

Published: March 30, 2026, 4:00 am

‘Assault on justice’: how far-right attacks are threatening rule of law in Europe

Judicial independence is under threat as populist politicians target judges and authoritarian governments attempt constitutional reforms

Revealed: Five EU governments found to ‘consistently’ dismantle rule of law

In March last year, a Paris court found Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and barred her from running in next year’s presidential race in France. The far-right figurehead took to the airwaves to slam a “political decision” and “denial of democracy”.

Le Pen, who has appealed, said she had been subjected to a “tyranny of judges” and a “political assassination”. The “system” had dropped “a nuclear bomb” on her. The presiding judge was then threatened by others on social media and her home address shared.

Published: March 30, 2026, 6:20 am

Is it true that … you can never eat too much fibre?

Fibremaxxing is everywhere, and most of us should eat more roughage, but your gut won’t thank you for overloading

Fibre has replaced protein as TikTok health influencers’ macronutrient du jour, with “fibremaxxers” urging followers to pack as much roughage into their diets as possible. But is the sky really the limit?

“In theory,” says Dr Emily Leeming, a dietitian at King’s College London and the author of Fibre Power (out in May): our ancestors may have eaten up to 100g of fibre a day, but that’s far beyond what most modern guts can tolerate.

Published: March 30, 2026, 7:00 am

Zoning in on Marolles, Brussels: ‘A friendly, cosmopolitan village where everyone is welcome’

Beyond the Belgian capital’s more obvious sights lies a thriving district known for its classic Belgian cuisine, alternative art scene and gigantic flea market

The Brusseleir dialect that’s still spoken in much of the Marolles dates back to the middle ages, a symbol of the independence of this proudly working-class neighbourhood in central Brussels. Located between the Palace of Justice and Halle Gate, it’s always been an inclusive refuge for immigrants from Europe and north Africa. The must-see Brussels tourist attractions of the Grand-Place central square and Mannekin-Pis statue are within walking distance, but the Marolles offers a very different experience: fashion, antiques and bric-a-brac shopping; alternative creative centres and provocative graffiti; characteristic estaminets (hybrid pub, cafe, bistros) specialising in hearty local dishes; and artisan breweries.

Published: March 30, 2026, 6:00 am

Malnourished children and desperate mothers: the healthcare facility on the frontline of Nigeria’s hunger crisis

About 6.4 million Nigerian children are expected to be acutely malnourished by the end of the year, putting impossible pressure on scarce treatment centres

Zuwaira Hanafi stood in shock as four doctors rushed past her to enter the ward where her eight-month-old daughter, Hambali, lay semiconscious.

At the entrance to the healthcare facility in Kaita community in Nigeria’s northern Katsina state, medical personnel were using colour-coded tape to measure the diameter of children’s arms and determine their levels of malnutrition. A steady stream of mothers, some as young as 15, filtered through with children, many of them, like Hambali, arriving in a critical state.

Zuwaira Hanafi watches over eight-month-old Hambali as she is treated for acute malnutrition

Published: March 30, 2026, 4:00 am

The security council has allowed unchecked power and brutality. To protect peace, we must reform the UN | Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

A world without rules is an insecure world. It’s time for multilateralism that truly reflects the global order

Every violation of international law invites the next. From Afghanistan to Iran, and across Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Gaza and Venezuela, the line between what is permitted and what is prohibited has been steadily blurred by the complicit inaction of the UN security council. Wielding the veto as both a shield and a weapon, its permanent members too often act without grounding in the UN charter. They play with the fate of millions, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Until recent years, there was at least an attempt to give interventions a veneer of legitimacy through UN endorsement. Today, the open exercise of power no longer even tries to keep up appearances. The guardrails of multilateral institutions are becoming too narrow to contain hegemonic rivalries. Without multilateralism, we risk replacing an imperfect system of collective security with the brutal reality of widespread insecurity. When all constraints on the use of force are removed, chaos prevails.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is the president of Brazil

Published: March 30, 2026, 7:00 am

Middle East crisis live: Trump says he wants to ‘take the oil’ in Iran and could seize Kharg Island ‘easily’

US president tells Financial Times his ‘preference would be to take the oil’ but that ‘some stupid people back in the US say: “why are you doing that?”’

• Full report: Iran accuses US of plotting ground assault while publicly seeking talks

• Analysis: what the Houthis’ entry into the Iran war means for the conflict and the wider region

Donald Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds (454kg) of uranium from Iran, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing unnamed US officials.

The mission would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer, the report says.

But the president remains generally open to the idea, according to the officials, because it could help accomplish his central goal of preventing Iran from ever making a nuclear weapon.

The combined effect of both waterways being shut to commercial traffic from countries that neither the Iranians nor Houthis favour would be devastating.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s remark that “the policy of a state lies in its geography” has never seemed more apt.

Published: March 30, 2026, 7:43 am

Brent Crude rises after Trump says he wants to ‘take the oil’ in Iran; Starmer to gather business leaders to discuss emergency measures – business live

Asian stocks fall and Brent rises to over $115 a barrel; Trump says US could seize Iran’s export hub on Kharg Island

Government bonds around the world are set for the biggest monthly losses in more than a year, as investors worry about the impact of a prolonged war in the Middle East on inflation and economic growth.

Declines in bond prices have pushed their yields (or interest rates) higher, although they eased on Monday.

Now that the reality is sort of sinking in that perhaps the oil price might stay high for a bit longer, given that it’s hard to see an end to the war anytime soon, the growth impact is starting to become more of a focus.

The buzzword here is stagflation. Initial focus was on inflation. Now the ‘stag’ bit is moving into the picture, and that’s perhaps explained why short-ended bond yields have come off.

To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran, but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people.

Published: March 30, 2026, 7:37 am

Pope seems to rebuke Hegseth in remarks about leaders with ‘hands full of blood’

Pontiff’s unusually pointed comments come after US defence secretary’s prayer for violence against enemies ‘who deserve no mercy’

Pope Leo has said God ignores the prayers of leaders who wage war and have “hands full of blood”, in an apparent rebuke to the Trump administration.

The pontiff made the comments on Sunday as thousands of US troops arrived in the Middle East and days after the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, prayed for violence against enemies who deserved “no mercy”.

Published: March 29, 2026, 10:30 pm

Trump appears to relax de facto oil blockade on Cuba as Russian oil tanker nears island

Donald Trump says he has ‘no problem’ with Russia sending some oil into Cuba, as tanker Anatoly Kolodkin heads for Cuba with 730,000 barrels of crude

Donald Trump has signalled a new flexibility in allowing oil into Cuba, hours before a Russian oil tanker under US sanctions was due to arrive in the Caribbean island amid a de facto oil blockade imposed by Washington.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One the president said: “If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba, right now, I have no problem whether it’s Russia or not.”

Published: March 29, 2026, 10:41 pm

Dozens of No Kings protesters arrested in Los Angeles after clash with police

Officers fired pepper balls and teargas into group of about 150 on Saturday night, arresting those who did not disperse

• Third No Kings protest draws 8 million worldwide to push back on Trump administration

Police arrested dozens of protesters and shot teargas into a crowd on Saturday night at a No Kings protest in Los Angeles.

The conflict is the latest of many that have taken place outside the Metropolitan detention center, which has become a focal point of protests since the Trump administration launched an immigration offense on Los Angeles last year.

Published: March 29, 2026, 6:02 pm

Cory Booker says Democrats have ‘failed this moment’ and calls for new leaders

Senator’s comments come amid growing divisions within the party, which he says has ‘too small of a coalition’

Cory Booker, the Democratic senator from New Jersey, renewed his calls for new leadership of the Democratic party, saying the party has “failed this moment”.

“As a whole, our party has failed this moment,” Booker said on Sunday. “I’ve called for a generational renewal, because this left-right divide is killing our country and our adversaries know it.” He also said that “purity tests” within the party have led to more division in the US.

Published: March 29, 2026, 7:32 pm

Five EU governments found to ‘consistently’ dismantle rule of law

Exclusive: Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Slovakia actively pursue regressive policies, watchdog finds

‘Assault on justice’: how far-right attacks are threatening rule of law in Europe

Governments in five EU member states are “consistently and intentionally” eroding the rule of law, Europe’s leading civil liberties group has warned, while democratic standards are deteriorating in six more, including historically strong democracies.

Drawing on evidence from more than 40 NGOs in 22 countries, the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) described the governments of Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy and Slovakia as “dismantlers” that were actively weakening the rule of law.

Published: March 30, 2026, 5:01 am

LA county sheriff’s deputy dies after medical emergency during relay race

Levi Vargas, 30, was competing in Baker to Vegas race through Mojave desert as US south-west faces extreme heat

Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputy Levi Vargas died on Saturday after a medical emergency while participating in an annual relay race through the Mojave desert. He was 30 years old.

Vargas had been competing at the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup relay race, which follows a 120-mile (193km) course from Baker, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, through the Mojave desert. Several law enforcement agencies send 20-runner teams annually to compete in the race.

Published: March 29, 2026, 11:08 pm

Chesney the kangaroo found three days after hopping away from farm

Marsupial escaped from enclosure at Wisconsin’s Sunshine Farm on Wednesday after he was spooked by stray dogs

How does a kangaroo escape a petting zoo?

It’s not the opening line to a dad joke. If you’re Chesney the kangaroo, you scale an 8ft (2.5-meter) fence and go on the lam for three days, giving your keeper sleepless nights and sending residents of a small Wisconsin town on a search that would end happily on Saturday.

Published: March 29, 2026, 9:07 pm

Dezi Freeman shot dead by police after seven-month manhunt

Victoria police commissioner Mike Bush said the shooting was ‘justified’ and brought closure to the families of two police officers allegedly killed by Freeman in Porepunkah in August

• Live updates: Australian fugitive Dezi Freeman shot dead by Victoria police

• Who is Dezi Freeman?

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Fugitive Dezi Freeman, the man allegedly responsible for the shooting deaths of two officers at Porepunkah, has been killed after a seven-month manhunt in rural Victoria.

The Victoria police chief commissioner, Mike Bush, confirmed a man was fatally shot by police shortly after 8.30am on Monday, after an hours-long standoff in which he failed to surrender peacefully.

Published: March 30, 2026, 5:37 am

Thieves steal Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse paintings worth millions from Italian museum

Four masked men entered Magnani Rocca Foundation villa, near Parma in northern Italy, and made off with artworks

Thieves stole paintings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse from a museum in Italy a week ago, police have said.

Four masked men entered the villa of the Magnani Rocca Foundation, near Parma in northern Italy, and made off with the artworks on the night of 22 March, a police spokesperson said, confirming a report on the Rai television network.

Published: March 30, 2026, 5:49 am

Kim Novak says Sydney Sweeney is ‘totally wrong to play me’ in biopic

The 93-year-old says Sweeney ‘looks sexy all the time’ and she ‘never approved’ Scandalous, drama about her romance with Sammy Davis Jr

Kim Novak has voiced her disapproval of the casting of Sydney Sweeney as herself in an upcoming biopic, saying she is “totally wrong to play me”.

Speaking to the Times, the 93-year-old actor said she would have “never approved” the biopic Scandalous, about her relationship with the musician Sammy Davis Jr.

Published: March 30, 2026, 5:30 am

How to end this war | Salar Mohandesi and Ben Mabie

A once robust American anti-war movement is significantly weaker than it was in its heyday. The immensely unpopular war on Iran offers a real opportunity to rebuild it

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson asked Congress for authorization to use military force in south-east Asia. His resolution passed unanimously in the House, and only two voices dissented in the Senate. As for the public, 77% of Americans said they trusted the government to do what is right, and more than 60% supported war.

It is common today to hear that the US war in Vietnam was unpopular, but it certainly did not begin that way. It took several years, billions of dollars, tens of thousands of deaths, and constant anti-war mobilization before Americans changed their minds.

Published: March 29, 2026, 1:00 pm

China’s ‘teapot’ oil refineries keep economy brewing – but surging crude prices leave them strained

The factories, which buy cheap crude and turn it into fuel, are struggling as higher oil prices threaten their razor-sharp margins

The towns that are the bulwark of China’s energy security can, at a moment of global crisis, appear deceptively quiet. Trucks carrying oil trundle along wide-open highways that have little traffic, while a few boarded-up shops in crumbling low-rise buildings hint at a long-forgotten local buzz.

A ramshackle noodle shop serving hand-pulled ribbons of dough was empty at lunchtime, save for a few construction workers and a teacher watching videos on Douyin, the social media platform, with his meal.

Published: March 30, 2026, 12:00 am

So you went to a No Kings protest. Now what?

Millions of people marched on Saturday against Trump and his administration. While the single-day protest has ended, there are other ways, used in other movements throughout history, to keep the momentum going

More than 8 million people showed up across 3,300 No Kings protests on Saturday, calling for an end to the war in Iran, immigration agents in their communities and what they see as Trump’s creeping authoritarianism. Organizers say it’s the greatest number of protests in a single day in US history.

But movement scholars say social change doesn’t begin and end with one protest. It takes activism at the local and national level, and in a variety of forms, to bring about change.

Published: March 29, 2026, 5:18 pm

The pet I’ll never forget: Merlin the therapy sheep

When Merlin came to live with me, his only job was to clear the weeds from my fields. But his calm, affectionate nature has made him a vital part of my therapy practice

Merlin the sheep came to me by chance four years ago. A friend of mine had a lamb she was bottle-feeding, but she couldn’t look after it any more so she asked me if I could take care of it. I live in Moortown, Leeds, and rent about three hectares (seven acres) of land in Eccup, a small village nearby, where I’ve kept horses for about 13 years. I needed some help clearing the weeds that the horses wouldn’t eat and sheep seemed like the best solution because they’ll eat anything – so I said yes.

The lamb was called Bambi and when I came to collect her, my friend offered me another lamb, Merlin. Shortly after, Bambi died and it was just Merlin left. It wasn’t long until he started to show his special powers.

Published: March 30, 2026, 6:00 am

Q review – freedom, lies and transgressions in emotional fallout from a secretive Muslim women’s movement

Jude Chehab turns the camera on the maelstrom – and slow liberation – after her mother’s expulsion from controversial group al-Qubaysiat

Opening the Pandora’s box of her family secrets, Jude Chehab makes a complex and moving documentary debut that unfolds both as an investigation and as a kind of intergenerational therapy. For decades, her mother, Hiba, was devoted to al-Qubaysiat, a highly secretive female Muslim order that operates in Lebanon and Syria. Chehab’s grandmother Doria had also been a follower, and the film-maker herself was initiated into the group as a young girl. For the two older women, this all-female religious movement inspired feelings of solidarity and freedom, yet al-Qubaysiat also demanded absolute submission to the leader, known to followers as the Anisa, or the Teacher. And when Hiba was expelled for unclear transgressions, her world fell apart.

In contrast to other documentaries on controversial organisations, Chehab’s film doesn’t sensationalise the tactics of indoctrination. In fact, information about the group only comes in bits and pieces, as revealed by Hiba and Doria. This storytelling choice lifts the focus away from the unseen but powerful Anisa, focusing instead on the emotional maelstrom endured by Hiba and the rest of Chehab’s family. Chehab might have thought of her camera as a potent tool for catharsis, yet when she urged her father to speak on the al-Qubaysiat, his answers were not as scathing as she had hoped, as if he had gone off an imaginary script.

Published: March 30, 2026, 6:00 am

Sarah Lee captures the wonders of spring – in pictures

As the clocks go forward and the UK enters British summer time, the Guardian photographer Sarah Lee has been trying to distract herself from gloomy world news by focusing on the miracles of springtime and coming of longer days

Published: March 30, 2026, 6:00 am

Make spring cleaning easier with these 13 editor favorites for scrubbing, cleaning and tidying

From a multipurpose portable vacuum cleaner to a nearly everlasting scrubber – these products will leave your house sparkling

• Break up with your liquid detergent. Try these plastic-free laundry sheets instead

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

Spring cleaning, the annual catharsis of tidying and refreshing, is currently upon us. Across the nation, closets are being reorganized, homes are being scrubbed and winter is being bade a not-too-fond farewell.

Haven’t got your personal strategy down yet? Here at the Filter, we’ve asked our editors and contributors to share their most trusted products to help you better tackle this season of sparkle. From environmentally friendly soaps, powders and scrubbers to a premium air purifier to help combat dust and allergies, we run the gamut for all your spring cleaning needs.

Published: March 29, 2026, 5:15 pm

‘I’m an old bastard looking back’: the bizarre renaissance of piano-jammer Bruce Hornsby

The AOR jazzer behind smash hit The Way It Is veered off into the avant garde. But he’s having sudden mainstream acclaim. ‘Well,’ he says as he releases yet another album, ‘it’s nicer than being ignored’

When people tell you they remember exactly where they were when JFK was shot, they don’t often add that the room erupted in cheers and shouts of: “Hooray! Nixon can take over!” Speaking via Zoom from his home in Williamsburg, Virginia, one of the oldest towns in the US, Bruce Hornsby shrugs and says: “Well, that was my experience!” It was the day before his ninth birthday and the whoops of delight came from his classmates, all of which is recalled on an impressionistic track from his new album Indigo Park: “I was really alarmed and confused / Watching the children parroting parents’ views.”

Until now, Hornsby has rarely written autobiographical lyrics, so people don’t know all that much about him. His biggest song, The Way It Is, was a piece of social commentary, the product of a liberal upbringing in the segregated south. His aunt campaigned against the likes of Senator Harry F Byrd, who opposed the desegregation of Virginia’s schools in the 1950s.

Published: March 30, 2026, 4:00 am

I’ve spent a decade fighting Trump. Here are six lessons I’ve learned | Saul Austerlitz

A decade ago, I knew nothing about organizing. But ordinary people are essential to fighting the rise of authoritarianism

In January of 2017, I sent a tentative email to a few dozen friends and acquaintances who I suspected were also freaked out by the election of Donald Trump, asking if they wanted to join a local chapter of an effort called Indivisible, intended to serve as a grassroots liberal counterweight to the new administration. It was frankly not possible, at that point, to know less about activism than I did.

In the more than nine years since, our group has sent an email every weekday – approximately 2,300 in total – with a single concrete daily ask for our members: call your elected representatives. Make a donation. Show up for a rally. During that span, we have knocked on tens of thousands of doors, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, sponsored refugee families, and mobilized our friends, neighbors, colleagues and acquaintances to keep fighting for democracy.

Saul Austerlitz is the author of How to Assemble an Activist

Published: March 29, 2026, 11:00 am

Protesters dumped a Columbus statue in 2020. Trump installed a replica near the White House

The statue isn’t about preserving history – it’s about asserting the power to rewrite it

The Trump administration recently took a position on a man with a documented record of genocide and enslavement. “In this White House,” a spokesman announced last week, following the installation of a statue on the grounds of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, “Christopher Columbus is a hero.”

It is worth pausing on that word. A hero, in the civic sense, is not merely someone whom people admire. It is someone whose story the country agrees to tell in a particular way. Heroism is a narrative decision.

Jamil Smith is a Guardian US columnist

Published: March 29, 2026, 12:00 pm

The first moon landing captivated the world. Can a new return visit do the same? | Paul Owen

The first lunar mission since 1972 is about to lift off. It may not be as groundbreaking as the Apollo flights, but don’t write off the fascination the moon still exerts

On 21 July 1969, Neil Armstrong swung open the hatch of his spacecraft and clambered down a short ladder towards the surface of the moon. The Apollo 11 moon mission came only 66 years after Orville Wright made the first successful flight in an aeroplane. Armstrong captured a sense of that progression in the indelible first words he spoke on the lunar surface: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

That was nearly 57 years ago. No human has visited the moon since the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972.

Paul Owen is a Guardian journalist and author of the novel The Weighing of the Heart. He is working on a book about the moon landings

Published: March 30, 2026, 5:00 am

Millions of boomer small business owners will soon retire. Will their companies just disappear? | Gene Marks

It’s likely, but it also could be a boon for a new generation of entrepreneurs willing to take over established operations

Want to buy my business? It’s been very profitable. I’ve run it for more than 25 years. But no, you don’t want to buy it. Like most small businesses in this country, there’s really nothing of value here.

According to the Small Business Administration, there are approximately 33m small businesses in the US. But fewer than 7m actually employ people. The rest comprise freelancers, side gigs and independent contractors. I’m sure many of these people are making a living. But are they building assets? A brand? Probably not. If that “business owner” suddenly disappears, their business disappears with them. No one wants to buy a business like that. There’s no value.

Published: March 29, 2026, 2:00 pm

The Guardian view on peptides: Robert F Kennedy Jr would leave public health policy to the hucksters | Editorial

The US health secretary says he is a big fan of peptides. Many are promising drugs, but the only way to know their utility is proper clinical trials

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, is a chaotic person, but his Make America Healthy Again (Maha) agenda tends to follow a predictable logic. Large-scale, mandatory public health interventions – such as childhood vaccine requirements – are generally treated with suspicion and undermined. Personal choice – to drink unpasteurised milk, for example – is to be unleashed, and unburdened by regulation. In theory, Maha promises freedom and autonomy; in practice it tends to replace the precautionary principle with exhortations for individuals to “do your own research”, and sidelines scientific expertise in favour of “wellness” hucksters and profiteers.

This is particularly obvious in Mr Kennedy’s recent claims that he will open up the sale of “about 14” injectable peptide drugs to the public. Peptides are molecules often used by our bodies for sending signals – so there are many kinds of peptides, and the safety and efficacy of each is a separate question. The widely used “weight-loss jab” drugs are peptides but so are the toxic compounds in snake venom that dissolve living cells. Mr Kennedy is likely to be referring to a subset of 17 peptides restricted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023 due to “potential significant safety risks”. None have been proved to be safe or effective for human use, so there is no clear argument for reversing the decision.

Published: March 29, 2026, 4:25 pm

The Guardian view on Myanmar’s forgotten war: the military cosplay democracy but people demand the real thing | Editorial

Five years of brutal conflict have made the army more determined to crush opposition, and others more convinced they must resist

China promoted elections in Myanmar, while those fighting for democracy boycotted them. That tells you everything about the shift to a supposedly civilian administration in the coming days, five years after the military seized power in a coup. It appears likely that Min Aung Hlaing will swap his leadership of the army for the presidency. Whatever the details, the junta will still be running the show, and bombing civilians – just while cosplaying as democrats.

Myanmar’s suffering has been overshadowed by higher-profile wars. But the conflict-monitoring organisation Acled estimates that about 93,000 people have been killed since 2021, while the UN says that 3.6 million are displaced. The junta does not control much of the country, limiting where polls could be held. The opposition refused to take part, and others were excluded from voting because they are denied citizenship. Little wonder the main military-backed party declared a landslide victory – despite having won just 6% of the vote in a 2020 election.

Published: March 29, 2026, 4:30 pm

Men’s March Madness: UConn stun No 1 seed Duke with last-second three-pointer

• Braylon Mullin’s last-gasp heave seals shock win

• Michigan face Arizona for place in national final

Braylon Mullins sank a desperation three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left to give UConn an astonishing 73-72 victory over top-seeded Duke on Sunday, earning the Huskies a spot in the Final Four after they rallied from a 15-point first-half deficit.

The Blue Devils led by three with 10 seconds left before UConn’s Silas Demary Jr made one of two free throws to cut the margin to two. With Duke playing keep-away to prevent the Huskies from fouling, Cayden Boozer’s pass near midcourt was deflected, and after UConn came up with the ball, Mullins made a shot from well behind the three-point line.

Published: March 29, 2026, 11:01 pm

Tiger Woods’ latest brush with the law leaves questions why golf remains so beholden to him | Ewan Murray

Desire to remain relevant is understandable, but a glance at his behavioural pattern casts doubt on his PGA Tour and Ryder Cup involvement

It is a scene that has become more extraordinary with the passing of time. Plenty of sportspeople have been guilty of or admitted to extramarital capers. Only Tiger Woods appeared live on television, in front of a hand‑picked audience, to deliver a 14‑minute mea culpa on his transgressions.

American golf executives in their perfectly ironed slacks stood in sombre mood as Woods laid bare his “personal sins”. The venue, hilariously, was the home of the PGA Tour. Woods had no need to go into tawdry detail about his antics; the tabloid media had done that for him. “I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply,” Woods said. Sixteen years since that speech, it is worth pondering whether much has changed.

Published: March 29, 2026, 3:29 pm

F1 drivers demand urgent action after Oliver Bearman’s ‘scary’ crash at Japan GP

• Haas driver escaped with bruising after 190mph crash

• Leading figures in F1 request a safety review

Drivers and leading figures within Formula One have called for urgent action given their serious concern over the potential dangers now ­inherent in the sport after ­Oliver ­Bearman was involved in a huge accident at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The crash, caused by cars ­coming at one another at enormously ­different speeds, was described by the ­British driver as “scary” and by his Haas team principal as a lucky escape. The race was ultimately won for Mercedes by Kimi Antonelli, the 19-year-old in the ­process becoming the youngest driver to lead the world championship.

Published: March 29, 2026, 12:08 pm

After 12 years, a USMNT loss to Belgium still carries a World Cup weight

The United States’ collapse in a 5-2 loss to Belgium made clear that the gap between the sides in 2014 has yet to narrow

Mauricio Pochettino was literally unmoved.

To his left and right, his assistants pumped their fists, clapped their hands, rose to celebrate. Not Pochettino. After Weston McKennie put the US ahead with an end run around the Belgian defense that freed him up at the far post to tap the ball past Senne Lammens in the 39th minute, Pochettino just sat there, stoically, hunched forward in his seat, two fingers to his mouth.

Published: March 29, 2026, 4:30 pm

Women’s March Madness: Unbeaten UConn win 54th game in row to reach Final Four

• Sarah Strong stars as Huskies go for 13th national title

• UCLA book Final Four place after rallying past Duke

All-America forward Sarah Strong scored 21 points, Blanca Quiñonez added 20 and defending national champion UConn beat Notre Dame 70-52 on Sunday, sending coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies to their 25th Final Four.

The Huskies (38-0), who have won 54 games in a row, clinched the first spot for the Final Four in Phoenix. They will be going for their 13th national championship.

Published: March 29, 2026, 10:47 pm

Sinner sees off Lehecka to complete Sunshine Double without dropping a set

• World No 2 seals Miami Open final 6-4, 6-4

• Sinner won in Indian Wells earlier in March

Jiri Lehecka entered his first Masters 1000 final at the Miami Open in the best serving form of his life. He had won every service game in the tournament, a feat achieved by just eight men at this level before him. The ease with which he brushed aside all nine break points against him reflected his confidence.

It took two return games for Jannik Sinner to viciously drag the Czech back down to earth. Ten minutes in, Sinner had already broken Lehecka’s unbreakable serve. As has usually been the case over the past few years, Sinner burst into the lead and refused to let it go.

Published: March 30, 2026, 12:31 am

Tottenham target De Zerbi to save them from relegation after parting company with Tudor

• Croat failed to win a league match during 44-day tenure

• Spurs hoping former Brighton manager can arrest slide

Tottenham have parted company with Igor Tudor after seven games and 44 days in a desperate attempt to halt their slide towards relegation from the Premier League. According to the club, the decision was mutually agreed. Spurs have now moved once again to try to persuade Roberto De Zerbi to come to their rescue and join them straight away.

The club considered a move for De Zerbi, the former Brighton manager, after they sacked Thomas Frank on 11 February and before they appointed Tudor. De Zerbi had just left Marseille but he decided he needed a break from the game and would most likely look to resume work in the summer.

Published: March 29, 2026, 10:16 pm

Vingegaard keeps up ‘amazing start’ to season with Volta a Catalunya triumph

• Dane wins GC as Brady Gilmore takes stage seven victory

• Jasper Philipsen wins one-day In Flanders Fields race

Jonas Vingegaard triumphed at the Volta a Catalunya as he continued his strong start to the season, while Brady Gilmore sprinted to a surprise stage seven victory. Vingegaard topped the general classification 1min 22sec ahead of France’s Lenny Martinez and a further eight seconds ahead of Germany’s Florian Lipowitz.

Gilmore, racing with the retired football great Andrés Iniesta’s NSN team, edged out Dorian Godon and Remco Evenepoel in a thrilling bunch sprint finale. Sunday’s 95km final stage took in seven circuits of Montjuïc in Barcelona, where the Tour de France will start in July.

Published: March 29, 2026, 4:03 pm

Caster Semenya labels Olympic sex verification tests ‘a disrespect for women’

• Semenya criticises IOC president Kirsty Coventry

• ‘Her being a woman coming from Africa … it causes harm’

Caster Semenya, the South African two‑time Olympic 800m champion, said on Sunday that the reinstatement by the International Olympic Committee of sex verification tests for the 2028 Los Angeles Games was “a disrespect for women”.

The hyperandrogenic former athlete also expressed disappointment that the measure was taken under the leadership of the new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.

Published: March 29, 2026, 10:10 am

‘It’s biblical’: Maga anxiety over Iran war on display at CPAC as Trump skips event

Attendees at Conservative Political Action Conference express support and concerns amid rift over Trump’s action

Wherever you go, there you are, the saying goes. It was a lesson Donald Trump’s Maga faithful may have been reminded of last week when they gathered in a convention center near Dallas for a revival of the president’s political movement, only to find that there was no escape from the problems it faces.

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is usually a place of optimism, if not, triumph. It was on its stage last year that Elon Musk pumped a chainsaw in the air amid his abortive foray into clear cutting government bureaucracy, and where JD Vance named undocumented immigration as the “greatest threat” facing the United States and Europe. Trump is a regular, regaling the audience with lengthy monologues about his accomplishments.

Published: March 29, 2026, 12:52 pm

Urgent action needed to prevent surge in digital violence in Africa, experts say

A huge rise in internet users under the age of 30 has fuelled an increase in online violence against women and girls with devastating real-life effects, activists say

Activists and lawyers in Africa are calling for urgent action to protect women, girls and boys as digital violence surges across the continent.

A massive rise in internet users, coupled with huge numbers of people aged under 30, has fuelled an increase in gendered online violence across the continent, according to experts, by giving perpetrators new tools to control and silence women and girls, and influence boys.

Published: March 30, 2026, 4:00 am

DHS funding freeze now longest partial government shutdown in US history

If the now six-week partial shutdown continues after the weekend, it will become the longest of any shutdown

The shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the fourth-largest agency in the US government, became the longest partial shutdown in US history on Sunday.

If the now six-week partial shutdown continues after the weekend, it will also become the longest of any shutdown, surpassing the impasse late last year that dragged on for 43 days.

Published: March 29, 2026, 7:39 pm

Ukraine war briefing: German defence giant sparks row after comparing Ukraine drone makers to ‘housewives’

Rheinmetall CEO’s dismissive comments draw pointed reaction from Ukrainian prime minister and adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. What we know on day 1,496

German defence giant Rheinmetall has sought to ease a row caused by its CEO when he likened Ukrainian factories producing drones to “housewives” making weapons in their kitchens. In an interview with the Atlantic, CEO Armin Papperger was asked whether Ukraine’s drone technology could disrupt his industry, which focused more on areas such as artillery and tanks. “This is how to play with Legos,” Papperger said of the drones and went on to compare major drone Ukrainian manufacturers to “housewives”, adding “this is not the technology of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, or Rheinmetall”. “They have 3D printers in the kitchen, and they produce parts for drones,” he said, adding: “This is not innovation.” Alexander Kamyshin, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, swiftly point out the successes that Ukraine’s drones have had against Russian tanks. Kamyshin said that in his visits to arms factories he had seen “Ukrainian women working equally with men often enough”, adding: “They deserve respect.” The row also spawned the hashtag #MadeByHousewives on Ukrainian social media. On Sunday, Rheinmetall tagged Kamyshin in a post on its X account in which it said. “We have the utmost respect for the Ukrainian people’s immense efforts in defending themselves. Every single woman and man in Ukraine is making an immeasurable contribution.” Ukraine’s prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, later on Sunday said “the people of Ukraine deserve not only utmost respect but to be heard – and learned from. Yes, Europe’s defence is powered by Ukrainian ‘housewives’,” she said, also adding the #MadeByHousewives hashtag.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he discussed a possible security partnership on Sunday with Jordan’s King Abdullah to defend against drone attacks arising from the Iran war. “We discussed a possible partnership in the security sphere and the overall situation in the Middle East and the Gulf region,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. Zelenskiy is seeking support from Gulf states as western military aid faces fresh uncertainty. “From our own experience, we know that without a unified system, it is simply impossible to set up full-fledged protection of people and critical infrastructure,” Zelenskyy wrote. Ukraine, he said, had just such a system as in four years of war “we have had to fight against constant Russian strikes, including the use of Iranian drones”. He said Ukraine was offering expertise in the expectation that “those to whom we are making this proposal can help us strengthen ourselves”.

A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk killed three people and injured 13 on Sunday, police said, one of several attacks in frontline areas. Ukraine’s national police said a boy of 13 was among the dead. A statement said Russian forces used glide bombs in the strike on Kramatorsk, which has been a frequent target. Kramatorsk came under a new attack two hours after the initial strike. Other cities hit in Russian attacks included the nearby town of Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka and the city of Sloviansk, farther north. Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts.

Russia’s Baltic Ust-Luga port, one of its largest petroleum export hubs, was damaged again on Sunday by a Ukrainian drone attack which sparked a blaze later brought under control, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. Ukraine’s SBU security agency said long-range drones struck an oil terminal at Ust-Luga. It added in a statement that the strike caused “serious damage” and a fire at the port. It follows several Ukrainian drone strikes last week on Russia’s western energy corridor when facilities at the ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk came under fire, igniting storage tanks and suspending transportation. The recent attacks have caused severe oil supply disruption for Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, and have come just as oil prices exceeded $100 a barrel due to the Iran war. “Additional firefighting resources from the Leningrad region and St Petersburg, including two fire trains, have been involved in extinguishing the fire at the port,” regional governor Alexander Drozdenko wrote on Telegram on Sunday.

A Ukrainian drone attack has killed one person, injured eight, and damaged homes and businesses in the southern Russian city of Taganrog, local officials said. The regional governor said on Sunday that falling drone debris prompted the evacuation of an area hit by falling debris. “Emergency crews are working at the site of the incident, where the debris fell,” Yuri Slyusar, governor of Rostov region on Ukraine’s eastern border, said on Telegram. “Fires and damage have occurred. People have been evacuated.” Taganrog Mayor Svetlana Kambulova, in a subsequent post on Telegram, spoke of widespread damage in the city. Taganrog is a port city at the eastern end of the Sea of Azov east of the border with Ukraine.

Published: March 30, 2026, 12:17 am

US abortion rate holds steady largely due to travel and telehealth availability – report

Shift seen away from from traveling to states with legal abortion in favor of telehealth and mail-order pills

The abortion rate is holding steady in the US despite total and partial bans in some states – largely because of travel across state lines and a significant increase in telehealth appointments, a new report says.

US regulatory officials are weighing changes to the ways mifepristone, an abortion medication, may be dispensed, but they have reportedly pushed their review until after the midterm elections, given the widespread support for abortion across the US.

Published: March 29, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘Visible from space’: why Spain has the world’s biggest concentration of greenhouses

Andalusia houses ‘Europe’s vegetable garden’ – a laboratory of development and innovation producing vegetables for all of Europe

Europe’s vegetable garden is in Andalusia, southern Spain. It is so vast that it can even be seen from space: if you open Google Maps and look west of Almería, you will see a white patch that looks like a glacier, but as you zoom in, you realise it is the highest concentration of greenhouses in the world. More than 30,000 hectares (74,131 acres) of land are covered in plastic, a geometric labyrinth five times the size of Manhattan, where 3.5m tons of vegetables are produced every year – from tomatoes to cucumbers, peppers to courgettes, aubergines to melons – enough to feed half a billion people and generate a turnover of more than 3bn euros.

Workers prepare peppers inside the Hortamar cooperative, a fruit and vegetable producers’ organisation in Roquetas de Mar, founded in 1977, that now has more than 240 members and sells throughout Europe, the US and Canada.

Published: March 29, 2026, 7:00 am

‘Lots of people still don’t have roofs’: Jamaicans living in hardship after Hurricane Melissa

Many say they have not received support to rebuild their homes months after the storm caused unprecedented destruction

“Before Hurricane Melissa I could have navigated life, figured things out. But since its passage, everything has just been turned upside down,” said Kerry-Ann Vickers.

Vickers was three months pregnant when Hurricane Melissa demolished parts of her home in the coastal town of Black River, in St Elizabeth, west Jamaica, last October. Nearly six months on, Vickers, 25, is still struggling to get support to rebuild her house and is distraught that her baby will arrive in a home without a secure roof.

Published: March 29, 2026, 6:00 am

Israeli strikes and US troop buildup put Pakistan’s peacemaker role under pressure

Islamabad is attempting high-wire diplomacy between US and Iran, but Israel could spoil any chance of success

Intensifying Israeli bombing of civilian targets in Iran and an expanding US military force in the Gulf are casting a dark shadow over Pakistan’s hopes of hosting peace talks between Iran and the US.

Pakistan is attempting high-wire diplomacy, using its relative neutrality as a country with good relations with Iran and the US, to provide a venue for negotiations. It is not a player in the Middle East and does not host any American military bases, so it does not bring the baggage of other potential regional mediators.

Published: March 29, 2026, 6:00 am

Goodbye Graaff-Reinet: South African town’s name change stirs racial tensions

Minister’s decision to ditch town’s colonial-era identity and honour anti-apartheid activist divides residents

A South African town is divided over changing its name from the colonial-era Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe, after the anti-apartheid activist, in a debate that has inflamed racial tensions.

Petitions have been signed, rival marches held and a formal letter of complaint sent to the sports, arts and culture minister, Gayton McKenzie, who approved the name change on 6 February.

Published: March 29, 2026, 4:00 am

Funeral held for three journalists killed by Israeli strike in Lebanon

Lebanese government calls the killings a ‘blatant war crime’ while Israel says primary target was a Hezbollah ‘terrorist’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

A funeral has taken place in Lebanon for three journalists killed by an Israeli strike on Saturday, after the Lebanese government called the killings a “blatant war crime”.

Ali Shoeib, of the Hezbollah-owned al-Manar television station, and Fatima Ftouni and her brother and cameraman Mohammed Ftouni, of the pro-Hezbollah outlet al-Mayadeen, were killed in the strike targeting their car.

Published: March 29, 2026, 2:33 pm

Monsters in the Archives by Caroline Bicks review – the writing secrets of Stephen King

A deep dive into the horror novelist’s archives reveals pedantry, penny-pinching, and a total redraft of Carrie

When Caroline Bicks first met Stephen King she was worried. As a teenager she had scared herself silly with his books – Carrie and The Shining were the two that crept under her skin and refused to budge – but now she found herself in the odd position of being Stephen E King professor at the University of Maine. King had endowed the chair at his alma mater in 2016 for the study of literature, and Dr Bicks was a Harvard-trained Shakespeare specialist. What, beyond a name, would they really have in common?

At the time of her appointment, Bicks’s employers had told her not to initiate contact with the famous author in any way. But four years into the job she got a phone call from “Steve” who turned out to be a teddy bear: “I couldn’t believe it. The man responsible for terrifying generations of readers – including me – was so … nice.” Not quite a meet-cute, but promising.

Published: March 30, 2026, 6:00 am

‘Serve, smile, procreate’: Yesteryear author Caro Claire Burke on the rise of the tradwife

As her dark debut about a tradwife who wakes up in the past is made into a film by Anne Hathaway, the novelist explores the sinister truth behind the barefoot influencers

Gingham dresses, linen aprons; toddlers smiling toothily out from their perch on a perfectly cocked hip. And the mothers holding these babies? They’re beautiful, obviously. They speak in a whisper. Their skin tone is varied in the exact range and spectrum of honey.

Tradwife. It’s a frilly word, the kind that holds a gun to your head and demands you say it in sing-song. The media coverage of the phenomenon has been as breathless and decidedly feminised as the term itself. I have yet to find an article on the topic that was not written by a woman, which feels ironic, given that the term – as well as the vision therein – was originally coined and circulated by men, born out of the dank, murky caves of online “incel” forums, where anonymous usernames set forth the deeply unoriginal vision of a wife who would do everything the real women in their lives refused to do: manage the house, give birth to children, have sex on command, and most importantly, ask nothing in return.

Published: March 29, 2026, 11:00 am

‘Soon publishers won’t stand a chance’: literary world in struggle to detect AI-written books

US release of horror novel Shy Girl cancelled and UK book discontinued after suspected AI use, as publishers feel ‘cold shiver’

Recently, the literary agent Kate Nash started noticing that the submission letters she was receiving from authors were becoming more thorough – albeit also more formulaic.

“I took it as a rise in diligence,” she said. “I thought it was a good thing.”

Published: March 29, 2026, 9:00 am

My mom, the cult leader: ‘She told us what to wear, when to pray, how we would have sex. We were prisoners’

Deborah Green was a charismatic woman who established a ‘free love ministry’ in California, claiming to be a vessel for God. She was also a controlling, cruel sadist. Her daughter Sarah talks about her terrifying upbringing – and dramatic escape

Sarah Green realised things weren’t right in the religious community where she was raised when her mother forced three of its members to live in a locked shed. All three were women, disowned by their husbands, and forced to live off scraps of food. Her mother, Deborah Green, said they had been judged by God and this was their punishment. One of the women, an old family friend called Maura, was made to wear a white sackcloth dress and renamed Forsaken. The other two women were renamed Barren and Despised.

Sarah is a strong, striking woman with a keen sense of irony and a joyous cackle of a laugh. But now she’s in tears. “I felt sickened to my gut. Even though I’d been groomed and my mom told me, ‘I’m God’s oracle, so therefore I hear what God wants for everybody, and this is what they have to go through because they’re sinning’, it didn’t make sense to me.” She sniffs back her tears. “Sorry, I’m getting emotional. So when they locked the people in the shed, I’d sneak them food. I just didn’t understand why Maura, who was part of our membership, had kids, all of a sudden was being forced to live like an animal and do the most degrading things. I didn’t understand why.” Sarah is wailing, as if she’s been transported back to the little girl she was at the time. “What had she done? I didn’t see anything, and I grew up around them. So from that moment you lived in fear, because you could be the next person on the chopping block.” Sarah eventually discovered that Maura’s sin was that she had refused to beat her children.

Published: March 29, 2026, 5:00 am

Tom Gauld on embracing the short novel – cartoon

Published: March 29, 2026, 3:00 pm

Long lines, martinis and memories as LA says adieu to cherished restaurant Taix

The 99-year-old Echo Park favorite is being bulldozed for apartments – Angelenos are losing a slice of city history

I was not hungry when I arrived at Taix on Thursday night, Los Angeles’s venerable, soon-to-close French restaurant and de facto museum of a long-gone era of fine dining. I’m rarely hungry when I go to Taix. Not because I don’t thoroughly enjoy their french onion soup, the mussels, or the decadent hamburger. I’m not hungry because it’s never my first stop of the night. Taix isn’t a destination. It’s a nexus point for LA.

No one in Los Angeles ever thought it would be gone, until it was. Sunday will be the last service for a restaurant that has anchored the neighborhood of Echo Park for the past 64 years, before it is torn down to make way for a large-scale luxury apartment development. The impending closure has sparked an end-of-an-era frenzy, with lines down the street, packed tables and loyal fans pinching menus and other memorabilia for their personal collection.

Published: March 29, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘I thought, what the hell have I done?’: the people who moved abroad for love – and regretted it

Emigrating to be with your partner sounds wildly romantic, but what happens when the person is right and the place very much isn’t?

I met my wife in Queensland in 2001. She’s from Bern, but was in Australia to study marine science. She needed help collecting fish for her project, and had heard that I was handy with a spear gun. We hit it off straight away, and began our romance on semi‑deserted islands near the Great Barrier Reef.

We went on to make a life together. My wife liked Australia and eventually got citizenship, but after we had our first son she wanted to be near her family.

Published: March 29, 2026, 11:00 am

This is how we do it: ‘My orgasms have become more intense since I had a baby’

Sandra and Roy are adapting to sex as new parents, from postpartum pain to acting fast when they have a private moment
• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

Sex was a reminder that I’m still me. That this identity still exists, which is really important because you do lose it a bit, especially in the early weeks of becoming a mother

Published: March 29, 2026, 10:00 am

‘The highs are extremely high – but the lows are extremely low’: when working out becomes an addiction

Pushing yourself to the limit, training through injury and choosing the gym over socialising are all signs that you may have an unhealthy reliance on exercise

At the peak of his adventuring career, Luke Tyburski was a man of extremes. The former pro-footballer, then in his early 30s, had dedicated himself to intense endurance challenges, of the sort that make a marathon look like a fun run. Beginning with the Marathon de Sables (a notorious multistage ultramarathon in the Sahara desert), he then ran the world’s highest ultramarathon at Mount Everest base camp, battled dehydration during a 100km run on a tropical island, and took on the vividly named Double Brutal Extreme Triathlon in north Wales. The endgame in all of this was a self-designed challenge, which saw him swimming from Africa to Europe, cycling through Spain and running to Monaco – 2,000km in total, in just 12 days.

Tyburski was a professional adventurer, financing his pursuits via magazine articles and speaking gigs, and even making a documentary about his quest. His whole raison d’etre was to push past his limitations, showing what a person is capable of when their mindset is strong enough. Yet, privately, he was dealing with depression, related to a loss of identity after the end of his footballing career, which took in Australia, the US and Belgium before he tried out for clubs in the UK. “Training and racing creates an escape, and the highs are extremely high,” says Tyburski. “But when I returned home from an adventure, the lows were extremely low, because I hadn’t addressed what I was running away from.”

Published: March 29, 2026, 2:00 pm

My search for the perfect Sachertorte in Vienna

The luscious chocolate and apricot torte is the stuff of legend in the grand, old world of Viennese coffeehouses. But which makes the tastiest?

I’m on a tram on Vienna’s Ringstrasse as towering facades, columns, statues and domes drift past, each more ornate than the last. Here, the State Opera; there, the Austrian parliament, built in the Greek neoclassical style.

As I gawp, I shove cake in my mouth. After all, Vienna isn’t just the city of music, or lavish architecture. Thanks, in part, to its centuries-old coffeehouse culture, it’s also one of Europe’s finest pastry destinations. Cake (or more precisely, torte, kuchen or Mehlspeisen) has its own day here – “Sweet Friday”, the most delicious of Catholic customs, when meat dishes are replaced with sweets. I have been introduced to it via the medium of Marillenknödel – apricot dumplings.

Published: March 29, 2026, 7:00 am

I’m 18 and don’t feel physically attracted to anyone. How can I ever have children? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

Take your time. Often we need to find out who we are before we can know what, and who, we really want

I’m 18 and have been at university for a few months. Being here has made me realise certain things about myself, including my struggle to desire a relationship. I’ve never been in one and don’t believe I’ve ever been physically or sexually attracted to anyone. I know I am still young, but I’m worried this will never change. Since going to uni, I’ve been around friends and others experiencing intimate relationships or discussing feelings which I can’t relate to or understand. I believe I am straight, but then again, as I haven’t felt anything towards the opposite sex, I have questioned that.

I am quite an anxious person, have often felt quite out of place in social situations, especially the last few years, and wonder if this is all linked. One of my biggest goals in life is to have children, and I’m worried it may be hard due to how I’m feeling.

Published: March 29, 2026, 6:00 am

The kindness of strangers: An online forum user shipped me a car radiator, saving me from financial ruin

Other commenters helped me diagnose the problem. When I couldn’t afford the solution, someone I knew only by his handle offered to pay

• Read more in the kindness of strangers series

As a pensioner, money is always tight, so I was distraught when the secondhand car I’d recently bought began overheating. I took it to three or four different mechanics, none of whom were able to diagnose the problem.

Desperate, I searched online for solutions. On car forums, several commenters suggested tackling the potential problems that would be cheapest to fix, in a process of elimination. Having replaced the thermostat, radiator coolant, engine oil and filter, and transmission fluid, the principal suspect was down to the radiator. So I contacted my carmaker, who quoted me $1,200 for a replacement – way more than I could afford, as I only had $500 left in the bank. I was hit with the sinking feeling that I had just blown my life savings on a lemon.

Published: March 29, 2026, 2:00 pm

Readers reply: American football takes for ever. In which other sports do you spend most of your time not playing the game?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

• This week’s question: has a call for ‘restraint’ ever put a stop to war?

I read that the average NFL match lasts for three hours, but the clock runs for only one hour. Are there any other sports, games, pastimes or other activities that involve more dead time than actual game time? Alice Holliday, Lancashire

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

Published: March 29, 2026, 1:00 pm

Putting the ‘lord’ in ‘landlord’: US churches step up to build housing amid shortage

The ‘Yes in God’s Back Yard’ movement sees churches across the country develop their underutilized land into affordable housing

A parcel of land behind Little Rock AME Zion church in Charlotte, North Carolina, remained mostly empty for nearly a decade before the congregation approached the city with a proposal.

The land sat unused while housing prices climbed and locals were being pushed out of their neighborhoods. So, the church proposed in 2018, why not develop housing there?

Published: March 29, 2026, 11:00 am

The OnlyFans inheritance: how its owner’s death could reshape the porn money-making machine

Leonid Radvinsky’s widow has been left with a crucial role in deciding what happens to the business that made her husband a billionaire

Yekaterina Chudnovsky, online biographies say, is a mother-of-four who “enjoys spending time with her family and teaching them the importance of giving back and helping others”. They add that Ukrainian-born Chudnovsky, known as Katie, finds sanctuary in walks on the beach.

In interviews, Chudnovsky has spoken warmly about her commitment to philanthropy, her dedication to supporting cancer research and her work as a lawyer for an unnamed global technology firm. Pornography is never mentioned.

Published: March 29, 2026, 5:00 am

Palm Sunday, surfers and swan boats: photos of the weekend

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

Published: March 29, 2026, 12:20 pm