‘At first, she couldn’t come off the oxygen long enough’: the film that gives Marianne Faithfull one final thrilling performance

In new docu-drama Broken English, the much misunderstood singer looks back at all her past selves – and gives a performance that moves her audience to tears. Its makers relive an extraordinary shoot

When Marianne Faithfull died early in 2025, at the age of 78, she left the world one final musical performance. It comes at the end of a new film, Broken English, celebrating her six-decade career. It is a deeply moving scene, almost guaranteed to leave you in tears. You don’t need to be a full-on fan, up to that point, to have relished Faithfull’s unvarnished takes on her astonishing life – but that final husky-voiced number, with Nick Cave and Warren Ellis accompanying, should clinch it.

How do you make a film about Faithfull without rolling out all the cringey 1960s rock mythology? Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard seem to have nailed it. The film-makers initially had just three days with Faithfull, on a set at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire. She was living in a care home and needed oxygen intermittently, meaning the pair had to work quickly. “She was so ill when we first met her,” says Pollard.

Published: March 5, 2026, 5:00 am

'Gringo go home': Mexico’s growing tourism backlash – video

Tourism in Mexico is at an all-time high, with foreign visitors lured by the country’s rich culture and low costs. The Guardian visits Oaxaca, a state synonymous with indigenous culture, where tourism has grown 77% since the pandemic and once private family rituals such as the Day of the Dead are now big international parties. But with this opportunity comes a growing backlash across the country, as local people struggle with a cost of living crisis that is exacerbated by the tourism industry’s exponential growth

Published: March 5, 2026, 9:43 am

‘There is no shame in being vain’: the relentless rise of impossible male beauty standards

Men’s faces are under scrutiny as never before, with more opting for cosmetic procedures than ever. What is behind this sudden and significant shift?

The images are familiar: square-jawed white men, faces set hard, barking the language of strength and command. Over the past week, as the United States has pressed its military campaign in the Middle East, the face of defense secretary Pete Hegseth has appeared on screen after screen delivering the rhetoric of the warrior-patriarch. It is a face already known for other performances: posing in the gym alongside Robert F Kennedy Jr for the Department of War YouTube channel; lecturing the military about “fat generals”; hosting a weekend show on Fox News.

But here, borrowing the glory of the troops, Hegseth presented the general’s mask – the jutting jaw, the unflinching gaze – albeit without, some critics would suggest, the military experience or strategic judgment it usually signifies. Donald Trump, too, has offered his own version of the strongman face; the commanding presence, white and unyielding, though recently people have been rather more distracted by the new rash on his neck.

Published: March 5, 2026, 10:00 am

Power without a throne: how Khalifa Haftar controls Libya – and is answerable to no one

When Nato helped overthrow Gaddafi in 2011, there were hopes of a new beginning. More than a decade later, a former CIA asset runs the country – and Libya has become yet another lesson in the unintended consequences of foreign intervention

In July 2025, four of Europe’s most senior officials landed in eastern Libya for an urgent meeting. Italy’s interior minister had watched migrant arrivals surge during the previous six months. Greece’s migration chief was reeling after 2,000 people reached Crete in a single week. Malta’s home minister feared his island was next. And the EU’s migration commissioner was scrambling to rescue an agreement worth many hundreds of millions that was visibly failing to stop the boats.

Libya is a place where crises converge. Its 1,100-mile coastline, the Mediterranean’s longest, has become the main departure point for migrants heading north. Since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011, the country has been torn apart by successive civil wars. Russia, Turkey, Egypt and the UAE arm rival factions, and the contest no longer stops at Libya’s borders. From military bases in the south, Russia and the UAE funnel weapons and fighters into Sudan’s civil war, which has driven hundreds of thousands more refugees north towards Libya’s coast.

Published: March 5, 2026, 5:00 am

Tiny, lost and constipated: what a baby turtle told Australian scientists about warming seas

The arrival of loggerheads in New South Wales shows these ‘sentinels of climate change’ are being forced into unknown territory

When Bulwal Bilima (BB for short) first arrived at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, she, or possibly he, was lethargic, badly constipated and dehydrated. Named “strong turtle” in the Aboriginal Dhurga language of the Yuin people on whose land it was found, the tiny 110g loggerhead hatchling, no bigger than a bar of soap, had a fight on its hands.

The baby turtle was found stranded in New South Wales’s Booderee national park last April, much further south than the usual hatching grounds. After days of feeding on squid, sardines and marine vitamins, BB, whose sex cannot be determined until it is fully mature, revived.

Published: March 5, 2026, 5:00 am

Exercise and freedom: inside a children’s mental health centre in Gaza

A Palestine Red Crescent Society mental health centre provides one of the few places left where children in Gaza can play and feel safe

Published: March 5, 2026, 7:00 am

Airstrikes hit Iran-Iraq border as US and Israeli plan to mobilise Kurds gathers pace

Experts say backing Iran’s ethnic communities could ‘open up a hornet’s nest’ and increase risk of chaotic civil war

Intense waves of airstrikes have hit dozens of military positions, frontier posts and police stations along northern parts of Iran’s border with Iraq in what appears to be preparation by US and Israel for a new front in their war.

A US official with knowledge of the discussions between Washington and Kurdish officials said the US was ready to provide air support if Kurdish fighters crossed the border from northern Iraq.

Published: March 5, 2026, 10:17 am

Middle East crisis live: Israel launches fresh strikes on Tehran; Iran claims to have targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq

Tehran says it hit groups ‘opposed to the revolution’, amid reports the US is looking to arm Kurdish militias

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Iran says it has targeted Kurdish groups in Iraq and warned “separatist groups” against action in the widening war.

Tehran said on Thursday it had hit Iraq-based Kurdish groups “opposed to the revolution”, as reports said the US was looking to arm Kurdish militias to infiltrate Iran.

We will not tolerate them in any way.

Published: March 5, 2026, 10:18 am

‘A big burden for farmers’: Gulf shipping crisis threatens food price shock

Iranian blockade of the strategic strait of Hormuz is hitting global fertiliser supply chain

The global fertiliser supply chain could face significant disruption if the effective closure by Iran of the strait of Hormuz persists, prompting concerns from analysts about crop production and food security.

Passage through the waterway, located off Iran’s southern coast, has mostly stopped since the US and Israel launched their attacks at the weekend.

Published: March 5, 2026, 6:00 am

Spain rejects White House comments that it now backs US-Israel war on Iran – Europe live

The White House press secretary earlier said Spain had agreed to ‘cooperate with the US military’ after Donald Trump threatened to cut trade to Spain

Meanwhile, France has allowed US aircraft on some of its bases in the Middle East during the conflict opposing the United States and Israel with Iran, the French military said.

“As part of our relations with the United States, the presence of their aircraft has been temporarily authorised on our bases” in the region, a spokeswoman for the military general staff told AFP.

“These aircraft contribute to the protection of our partners in the Gulf.”

“The frigate Cristóbal Colón joined the Charles de Gaulle Naval Group on 3 March to carry out escort, protection, and advanced training duties in the Baltic Sea. The group will now head to the Mediterranean, arriving off the coast of Crete around 10 March.

The supply ship Cantabria will also briefly put to sea to provide fuel and logistical support during the Naval Group’s transit through the Gulf of Cádiz.

Published: March 5, 2026, 10:17 am

Senate votes down resolution to prevent Trump from continuing war with Iran

War powers vote broke along party lines with almost all Democrats in support and most Republicans opposed

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Senate Republicans on Wednesday voted down an attempt to require Donald Trump receive Congress’s permission before continuing the war with Iran, batting aside concerns from Democrats that the campaign is illegal and risks plunging the United States into a prolonged conflict.

The 47-53 vote on a war powers resolution introduced by Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine broke largely along party lines. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to vote against the measure, while Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only member of the Republican majority to support the resolution.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:27 pm

Globalisation is under threat from Iran war – and Britain is uniquely vulnerable

Economic ripples from US-Israel attacks will soon become waves, engulfing everything from energy prices to food

In retaliation for the US-Israeli missile attacks, Iran has launched what amounts to all-out economic warfare. Should the conflict continue even for another week, its impacts will start to be felt around the world as the third price surge since the pandemic washes through global markets.

For Britain, a further turn of the screw on living standards arrives just as political instability mounts at home, with the Labour and Conservative parties facing existential challenges to their left and right.

Published: March 5, 2026, 8:34 am

‘He was smart and kind and amazing’: four American soldiers killed in Kuwait remembered

Here’s what we know about the four US service members who have been identified

• Middle East crisis – live updates

More details have emerged about four of the American service members who were killed in an unmanned aircraft system attack in the Shuaiba port in Kuwait on Sunday, the first known US fatalities since the US and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran on Saturday.

All four soldiers had been assigned to the 103rd sustainment command in Des Moines, Iowa, and were “supporting Operation Epic Fury”, the Department of Defense said, adding that they “died on March 1, 2026, in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, during an unmanned aircraft system attack”.

Published: March 4, 2026, 6:56 pm

‘He’s no Winston Churchill’: why Starmer can shrug off Trump’s insults over Iran

The prime minister’s cautious stance about helping the US against the Tehran regime mirrors that of the electorate

• Middle East crisis: live updates

It was perhaps the most attention-grabbing moment of prime minister’s questions. Responding to yet another Conservative salvo about his approach to Iran and how it might affect ties with America, Keir Starmer was direct.

“American planes are operating out of British bases – that is the special relationship in action,” he said. “Sharing intelligence every day to keep our people safe – that is the special relationship in action. Hanging on to President Trump’s latest words is not the special relationship in action.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 6:41 pm

Trump’s ‘quasi-dove’ era is over. Iran strikes expose his hawkish turn

Deploying the world’s most powerful military seems to exert an almost erotic fascination for Donald Trump

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It was a claim uttered repeatedly on the 2024 campaign trail: “I’m the only president in 72 years that didn’t start a war,” Donald Trump said in Sioux City, Iowa.

Fact checkers cried foul and pointed out that Jimmy Carter, president from 1977 to 1981, did not start any wars either. But Trump won the election anyway.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:00 pm

Pam Bondi subpoenaed by US House in Jeffrey Epstein investigation

Republicans join Democrats to vote 24-19 to approve motion to compel US attorney general to testify

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Five Republicans on the House oversight committee joined with Democrats to subpoena the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, as part of the ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

The House oversight committee voted 24-19 to approve a motion introduced by Republican representative Nancy Mace to compel Bondi to testify. In addition to Mace, Republican representatives Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Michael Cloud of Texas, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania voted for the motion.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:56 pm

California Democrats defy call from party to abandon crowded race: ‘Voters choose the next governor’

State party chair had urged candidates with no ‘viable path’ to victory to drop out to ensure Democratic win in November

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One day after California’s Democratic party urged candidates without a “viable path” in the state’s crucial race for governor to drop out, the crowded field showed no sign of winnowing down.

At least nine Democrats are in the running to replace the outgoing governor, Gavin Newsom, with no clear frontrunner, which has fueled fears that the number of candidates could lead to two Republicans advancing to the November election.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:04 pm

Gen Z men twice as likely as baby boomers to believe wives should obey husbands

Global survey shows young men hold more traditional views about gender roles than older generations

Almost a third of generation Z men think a wife should obey her husband, according to a global survey of 23,000 people that found young men hold more traditional views about gender roles than older generations.

A third (33%) of gen Z men also said a husband should have the final word on important decisions, according to the 29-country survey which included Great Britain, the US, Brazil, Australia and India.

Almost a quarter (24%) of gen Z men think women should not appear too independent or self-sufficient, compared with 12% of baby boomer men.

Attitudes toward sexual norms also differed sharply across generations, with 21% of gen Z men thinking a “real woman” should never initiate sex, compared with only 7% of baby boomer men.

More than half (59%) of gen Z men said men were expected to do too much to support equality, compared with 45% of baby boomer men. For women, the proportions were 41% and 30% respectively.

Thirty percent of gen Z men believed men should not say “I love you” to their friends, compared with 20% of baby boomer men and 21% of gen Z women.

Twenty-one percent of gen Z men believed that men who took part in caregiving for children were less masculine than those who did not, compared with 8% of baby boomer men and 14% of gen Z women.

Both genders felt women had more choice in dating and relationships (22%), household roles (24%) and the clothes they can wear (34%), while men were considered to have more choice in hobbies (18%) and jobs (39%).

Published: March 5, 2026, 6:00 am

Sam Altman admits OpenAI can’t control Pentagon’s use of AI

CEO’s claims come amid increased scrutiny of US military’s use of the technology and ethics concerns from AI workers

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OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, told employees on Tuesday that his company does not control how the Pentagon uses their artificial intelligence products in military operations. Altman’s claims on OpenAI’s lack of input come amid increased scrutiny of how the military uses AI in war and ethics concerns from AI workers over how their technology will be deployed.

“You do not get to make operational decisions,” Altman told employees, according to reports by Bloomberg and CNBC.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:55 pm

Weight loss drugs may stop people getting addicted to drugs and alcohol, study finds

US study suggests GLP-1s, used to treat type 2 diabetes, could also reduce risk of people already using substances from overdosing

Weight loss drugs could help people avoid getting addicted to alcohol, tobacco and drugs such as cannabis and cocaine, a study has found.

They could also reduce the risk of people already addicted to illicit substances having an overdose, ending up in hospital or dying, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.

Published: March 4, 2026, 11:30 pm

Colorado governor likely to grant clemency to election denier Tina Peters, lawyer says

Lawyer for Peters says he expects Jared Polis to commute nine-year sentence over voting breach in 2020 election

A lawyer representing Tina Peters said he expects the Democratic Colorado governor Jared Polis to commute her nine-year prison sentence, a move that could release the only person serving a sentence related to trying to overturn the 2020 election from prison.

Peters was the county clerk in western Colorado’s Mesa county in 2020 and allowed an unauthorized person to use a security badge and access her county’s voting equipment. Passwords and other sensitive information related to the county’s election equipment later became public and was used by election deniers to try to question the 2020 election results.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:41 pm

How a clump of moss helped convict grave robbers in Illinois

Four cemetery workers dug up and moved more than 100 bodies to resell the burial plots nearly 20 years ago

It was a particularly heinous crime. Four workers at a cemetery near Chicago dug up more than 100 bodies and dumped the remains elsewhere in the grounds, in order to resell the burial plots for profit.

Now, nearly two decades after the scandal broke at Burr Oak cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, scientists have released details of how a tiny clump of moss became crucial forensic evidence that helped convict the grave robbers.

Published: March 5, 2026, 2:00 am

Oil price continues to rise amid Middle East crisis but stock markets rebound across Asia

Reports of attack on US registered tanker in Gulf lifts crude by 3% to $84 a barrel as gas price also starts to climb

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Stock markets have rebounded in Asia after days of heavy losses driven by the war in the Middle East, but oil and gas prices have continued to climb amid disruption to supplies.

South Korea’s KOSPI, which posted its biggest ever fall on Tuesday of 12%, soared almost 10% on Thursday, while Japan’s Nikkei climbed by 1.9%. MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan jumped by 2.7%.

Published: March 5, 2026, 10:01 am

Social climber: Punch the monkey starts to outgrow his Ikea plushie

Japanese baby macaque, who appeared to find comfort in the djungelskog toy after being rejected by his mother, seems to be mixing more with his peers

Punch, a baby macaque that stole the hearts of animal lovers around the world, is outgrowing his Ikea djungelskog plushie that comforted him after he was initially rejected by his mother and other monkeys at a zoo in Japan.

Images of the seven-month-old dragging around a toy bigger than him drew attention to the residents of Ichikawa city zoo near Tokyo. When other monkeys shooed the baby away, Punch rushed back to the toy orangutan, hugging it for comfort.

Published: March 5, 2026, 6:05 am

Trump-aligned candidates surge as some incumbents fall: five key takeaways from US primary elections

From Texas to North Carolina, incumbents fall as Democrats gain in Arkansas, signaling 2026 turbulence

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There was more at stake in Tuesday’s primary elections than just the high-profile nominations for US Senate seats in North Carolina and Texas. Further down the ballot were contests that offered hints of how the electorate was reacting to the Trump administration’s rapid and radical changes in Washington, and to whether Democrats were rebuilding popular support after suffering pivotal losses in 2024.

Here are some of the lesser-known outcomes of Tuesday’s vote in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas, which also held primary and special elections:

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:33 pm

Montana Republican Steve Daines drops Senate re-election bid minutes before deadline

Trump ally Daines confirms resignation and withdraws bid for a third term, saying: ‘It is time for new leaders’

Republican US senator Steve Daines of Montana dropped his bid for re-election to a third term Wednesday.

Daines withdrew his name just minutes before the deadline for candidates to file for the November election with the Montana secretary of state’s office. Daines confirmed his resignation in a written statement as well as a video posted to social media.

Published: March 5, 2026, 1:10 am

Australian PM Anthony Albanese gave Donald Trump model nuclear submarine on golden plate at White House

Exclusive: Prime minister also presented Melania Trump with a $3,000 Paspaley pearl pendant

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, gave Donald Trump a gift of a model nuclear submarine with golden plates and finishes, internal documents reveal, during his visit to the White House last year which sealed the president’s support for the Aukus pact.

The prime minister also presented the US first lady, Melania Trump, with a A$3,000 Paspaley pearl pendant.

Published: March 5, 2026, 1:45 am

Half of Americans back abolishing ICE amid Trump crackdown, poll finds

YouGov poll shows 50% support as Kristi Noem defends ‘terrorist’ claim and shutdown drags on

Half of Americans support the abolition of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, a new poll has found, as opposition to Donald Trump’s aggressive federal immigration crackdown continues to grow.

The analysis by YouGov revealed that exactly 50% of respondents “strongly or somewhat” want to see the agency dismantled, a 5% rise from a January poll taken between the deaths in Minnesota of US citizen protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:14 pm

‘In the face of death, we are all equal’: Ukraine’s Roma fight for recognition for those serving in war

With many lacking official documentation or unable to speak Ukrainian, the families of men killed in action are struggling to get the compensation they are owed

As a father of four, Viktor Ilchak was not supposed to serve in the army. Ukraine does not mobilise men who have three or more children. His wife and children cried and begged him not to go to war. But he had made up his mind. “A typical Capricorn, so stubborn,” says his wife, Sveta.

It was 2015, the war in Donbas was growing in intensity. “I heard someone on TV complaining that Roma aren’t defending their homeland. This pissed me off, and so I volunteered,” says Ilchak. In the territorial recruitment centre in Uzhhorod the Ukrainian soldiers were surprised, but they had to take him.

Published: March 5, 2026, 8:00 am

Why Bugonia should win the best picture Oscar

Contains spoilers: Emma Stone’s hard-faced corporate CEO has a lot of explaining to do when she is kidnapped by Jesse Plemons’s conspiracy kook. But in this film, asking whether someone is an alien seems an ordinary inquiry

Emma Stone as a kidnapped, shaven-headed pharmaceuticals CEO who might also be the ruler of an alien master race? It says a lot about director Yorgos Lanthimos that Bugonia was arguably his most straightforward film to date.

For this remake of the cult 2003 South Korean movie Save the Green Planet! we were invited into the unkempt home of beekeeper Teddy (Jesse Plemons), a paranoid conspiracy theorist whose internet research has led him to believe that aliens are poisoning his bees – and that only he can save life on Earth from extinction. He enlists his neurodivergent cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) to kidnap high-flying Michelle Fuller (Stone), whose company Auxolith seems to have caused Teddy’s mother some kind of irreversible harm in the past.

Published: March 5, 2026, 8:00 am

Vladimir review – Rachel Weisz is unswervingly brilliant in a TV show you’ll admire for years to come

This adaptation of the 2022 novel – starring Weisz, Leo Woodall and John Slattery – fits it perfectly to television. It’s a proper show for proper grownups

Vladimir is that rare visitor to the screen – proper television for proper grownups. The eight-part adaptation of Julia May Jonas’s provocative 2022 debut novel of the same name has not shied away from the properties that made the book great – black comedy, bleak insight, evisceration of accepted pieties – and fitted them perfectly to the new form. The screenwriter, Jeanie Bergen, who has obviously absorbed the book into her very bones, retains all of Jonas’s wit, confidence and, crucially, her willingness to dwell in grey areas and luxuriate in the complexities that govern life in middle age.

She also has Rachel Weisz, giving an unswervingly brilliant performance as the unnamed protagonist, a tenured English professor beloved by her students, whose husband, John (John Slattery, playing his one part, but he does it so well and so much better than anyone else, who are we to object to seeing it again?), another tenured academic on the same campus – has just been suspended for sleeping with students. His defence is that this was before the rules changed. “It was a different time” is a recurring phrase – not just from him (for here is the beginning of Jonas and Bergen’s devotion to rug-pulling) but from his wife and other members of their faculty and peer group, male and female.

Published: March 5, 2026, 8:01 am

You be the judge: should my eco-conscious husband park his dislike of flying?

Jenny wants to spread her wings and see the world, but Teddy is happy at home. Where do they go from here? You decide

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I worry about my carbon footprint, but you can’t go everywhere by train and I want to see the world

It’s not an environmental issue. I’ve just had my fill of flying and don’t really enjoy being a tourist

Published: March 5, 2026, 8:00 am

A delightful day at the dump: ‘The trick is not to leave with more stuff than I arrived with!’

At the council recycling tip in Chingford, people drop off fridges, dishwashers, mattresses, golf clubs, bicycles and batteries – then head into the shop to hunt through the weird and wonderful treasures

When an embalmed rabbit in a Perspex box arrived at the dump in Chingford, north-east London, last year, with fur on its head but its organs and skeleton exposed to teach veterinary students about the digestive system, Lisa Charlton knew she had to save it from landfill. She was sure that one of her regulars, a man interested in anything “a bit weird, macabre and bizarre” would buy it. And he did.

Charlton, who has worked at the recycling centre’s onsite ReUse shop for a year and a half, has salvaged items ranging from furniture, old toys and lampshades to walking frames brought in by local people. She has put aside some cast-iron cauldrons for her sister who is “into crystals and healing” and runs a shop in Cornwall. Items that have come through her shop include vintage crockery, antique crystal vases with solid silver rims, a spindly chair from the 1920s and an old ammunition box.

Published: March 5, 2026, 5:00 am

Google Pixel 10a review: cheaper Android is great, but no real advance

Quality camera, good software and long battery life, but you should just buy the Pixel 9a instead

The latest smartphone in the lower-cost A-series Pixel line shows what makes Google phones so good, while undercutting the competition on price. The problem is that it differs little from its predecessor, which is still on sale.

Priced from £499 (€549/$499/A$849), the Pixel 10a is more like a second edition of last year’s excellent Pixel 9a. The two phones share the same Tensor G4 chip, not the newer G5 in the rest of the £799 and up Pixel 10 line; the same memory, storage and cameras; the same size 6.3in OLED screen, though the Pixel 10a reaches a higher peak brightness making it slightly easier to read outside.

Published: March 5, 2026, 7:00 am

As a boomer, I’m shocked by gen Z’s attitude towards women – something has gone very wrong | Joan Smith

New research suggests older people have more progressive views on women’s rights than younger generations. This direction of travel is deeply concerning

It is usually assumed that young people are more liberal than older generations. Not according to startling new research carried out in 29 countries, including the UK, that suggests that almost a third of gen Z men believe that a wife should always obey her husband. A similar number say a husband should have the final say on important decisions.

Although those stats are for a 29-country average, it seems to reflect worries about a masculinity crisis among young men in the UK. What century are we living in? It could be a snapshot from the 1970s, but the figures are from a survey published this week by Ipsos and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London. But even five decades ago, men in the UK who expressed such views could expect to be laughed at. They were swimming against the tide, as legislation was passed outlawing sex discrimination and creating a (theoretical) right to equal pay.

Joan Smith is an author, journalist and a former chair of the mayor of London’s VAWG board. Her latest book is Unfortunately, She Was a Nymphomaniac: A New History of Rome’s Imperial Women

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 5, 2026, 8:00 am

A Europe of clean, green cities and resurgent industry is a fantasy – unless we get really creative | Hans Larsson

If we want things to be ‘Made in Europe’ again, we need to be realistic about how grimy and grey our centres of commerce once were

“Bitterfeld, Bitterfeld, where dirt falls from the sky,” went a popular saying. Located in the intensely industrialised Chemical Triangle of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in the 1980s Bitterfeld became known as the dirtiest town in Europe. Its chemical industry and lignite mines dumped toxic waste in waterways, and the air carried a concentrate of sulphur dioxide some 40 times today’s levels.

Europe would soon be rattled out of its postwar reliance on heavy industry, in favour of cheap imports from abroad. In the last days of the GDR, environmental activism brought the coup de grâce. The 1988 release of the undercover film Bitter Things from Bitterfeld shed light on the appalling living conditions in the Chemical Triangle, and the city’s chemical plants were soon decommissioned.

Hans Larsson is an architect at OMA/AMO

Published: March 5, 2026, 5:00 am

Who is responsible for our creeping surveillance age? Chances are, it’s you | Tatum Hunter

Invasive behaviour that would have shocked us a decade ago now barely registers. And that includes the way we digitally track and monitor each other

A TikTok comedian recently launched a fake ICE tip line and received dozens of calls – including one from a teacher suggesting agents look into a kindergartener in her class. Governments and companies are the architects of surveillance culture, but civilians are increasingly keen to play a part. And it’s not just our perceived political enemies we’re willing to watch. It’s our friends, neighbours, partners and children.

As corporations and governments tunnel further into our digital lives – hoarding information about where we shop, who we know and what we believe – we’ve grown increasingly comfortable demanding the same access in our personal lives. While multiple apps log our location throughout the day, we demand that our friends also share their real-time movements through Apple’s Find My feature. While OpenAI uses our chat logs to train its models, we peek into the text messages of our partners. And while Palantir analyses social media data to help ICE identify its targets, we record strangers in public without their consent.

Tatum Hunter is a technology journalist based in Brooklyn. She writes on Substack at Bytatumhunter

Published: March 5, 2026, 10:00 am

Football’s converging moral panics hold up a mirror to our fractured world | Jonathan Liew

From grappling at corners to VAR, the endless list of complaints reflects a wider sense of dislocation from ‘the product’

A terrible boredom stalks the land. Across the nation’s television studios and podcast armchairs, wearied men grizzle accursedly with forked tongues into branded microphones: entombed by a game they despise and yet are paid so generously to discuss. Out there in the wild digital beyond, the sickness festers still deeper. The game has gone, they type into a little white box. This is not the football I once loved, click send. The beautiful game is broken, pleads the Telegraph. They think it’s all over, and perhaps it always was.

Arne Slot is no longer enjoying himself, and presumably a good proportion of the Liverpool fans at Molineux on Tuesday night know exactly how he feels. John Terry is no longer enjoying himself. Yaya Touré is “disappointed”. Ruud Gullit is so disgusted he has decided to stop watching. Chris Sutton thinks Arsenal will be the ugliest winners in Premier League history. Mark Goldbridge is bored out of his mind, albeit nowhere near as bored as you would presumably need to be to watch a Mark Goldbridge livestream.

Published: March 5, 2026, 8:00 am

Read these words from 100 years ago about immigrants in Britain – and see how history is chillingly repeating itself | George Monbiot

Shabana Mahmood’s new rights clampdown looks outlandish until we remember that this kind of hardline action is part of our country’s fabric

Our political memory fails us. We treat government policies as if we’re seeing them for the very first time. But much of what appears to be novel has deep historical roots. If we fail to understand those roots and the soil in which they grow, we will fail to resist the assaults on our humanity.

The home secretary’s new attack on the rights of immigrants and refugees is shocking and disorienting. Shabana Mahmood wants to raise the qualification period for immigrants to achieve indefinite leave to remain in the UK from five years to 10 (and up to 20 for refugees). It looks outlandish. So does her wider assault on asylum seekers, denying them permanent refugee status even if their claims are successful. But both are eerily familiar.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Published: March 5, 2026, 6:00 am

Trump’s new tariffs may boost his ego – but they’ll damage the economy | Steven Greenhouse

The US president’s plan will hurt consumers, companies and the stock market, as well as relations with other countries

After the US supreme court overturned Donald Trump’s global tariffs, he had two options: do what’s best for the US economy or do what’s best for his ego. Trump of course chose what’s best for his ego, and he did that by seizing on a never previously used legal provision to impose new tariffs that Trump – who can never admit defeat – insists will be just as good as the overturned tariffs.

Unfortunately, Trump’s decision to create a whole new set of tariffs will be bad for both the US economy and the world economy. When one cuts through Trump’s delusional poppycock about how great his new tariffs will be, it becomes clear that his new 15% across-the-board tariff will hurt consumers, corporations, factories, US trading partners and Trump’s beloved stock market. While Trump says “tariffs” is “the most beautiful word”, economists, business executives and consumers give Trump’s tariffs a thumbs down. A huge 64% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of tariffs, according to a new ABC News/WashingtonPost/Ipsos poll.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:00 pm

The Guardian view on the US-UK relationship: Trump is pushing Britain closer to Europe | Editorial

An unreliable and volatile American president makes a compelling case for closer security and defence cooperation with continental allies

There is truth to Donald Trump’s declaration earlier this week that the UK-US relationship is “not what it was”, although there is no indication that he understands the reasons for the change.

The US president is “very disappointed” that Sir Keir Starmer has been “uncooperative” in the war against Iran, offering only limited logistical support to American forces. The prime minister’s concession that RAF resources can be involved in defensive operations does not compensate for the prior refusal to put Britain’s military assets at American disposal. It came too late for Mr Trump, whose irritation turned to culture-war jibes about “windmills” ruining British landscapes and a false claim about the prevalence of sharia courts.

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Published: March 4, 2026, 6:30 pm

Arsenal go seven points clear with Saka on target in battling win at Brighton

Arsenal did not come to see the seaside. There were not here to make friends – which was just as well. It was purely about the points. Mission Eyes On The Prize. They accomplished it and then some.

There were 78 minutes on the clock when the travelling support got wind of Nottingham Forest’s equaliser at Manchester City. How they belted out their anthems at that point – about previous title-winning glories – and when it was all over, there was plenty more from them.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:54 pm

From bupkis to $100m blockbuster: has the World Baseball Classic finally arrived

The tournament is celebrating its 20th anniversary and some of the best players on the planet are competing for a title that means something

For years, while football fans salivated over Fifa World Cups, and basketball and hockey enthusiasts enjoyed an endless parade of NBA and NHL stars at the Olympics, baseball fans had bupkis, with no legitimate international tournament to speak of. Instead, there was something called the Baseball World Cup. Played without a Yankee, Cub or Dodger in sight, but with representatives from teams including the Montgomery Biscuits, Mexico Red Devils and Winnipeg Goldeyes, few fans in North America knew it existed, or when it was played. The only team with legit talent, Cuba, with players who could play in Major League Baseball, but did not because of politics, dominated the tournament.

Then in 2006 came a breakthrough with the debut of the 16-nation World Baseball Classic, which featured legitimate professional stars. The platform was built, the mysterious Cubans finally got to play in the US and the fans came. The tournament averaged nearly 19,000 fans a game, and that included the empty seat, Australia-Italy type match-ups. The face paint was bright, the vibes were October-like and the games were compelling; Japan held off Cuba as they took the maiden crown. The WBC passed its first test with a flourish and moved boldly into the future.

Published: March 5, 2026, 10:00 am

‘These women are prisoners’: Iran protesters make voices heard at Women’s Asian Cup

In the vacuum of the players’ silence, it has been the Iranian diaspora in Australia who are speaking out against the regime

As Iran’s national anthem began to trumpet around Gold Coast Stadium on Monday night, members of an Iranian fan group who had gathered near the halfway line began to unfurl red, white and green flags.

They weren’t the flags of their home nation, though. At least, not the nation they want to remember.

Published: March 5, 2026, 4:03 am

Lou Holtz, legendary college football coach and broadcaster, dies at age of 89

• Coach won national title with Notre Dame in 1988

• Holtz became a successful broadcaster in later years

Lou Holtz, one of the most revered coaches in the history of college football, has died at the age of 89. He had entered hospice care in January, shortly after his birthday.

A statement from his family said Holtz would be “remembered for his enduring values of faith, family, service and an unwavering belief in the potential of others”.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:51 pm

Formula One 2026: team-by-team guide to the cars and drivers

McLaren could start slowly, Mercedes may set the pace, while newcomers – and returning heroes – add huge interest

Car MCL40 Engine Mercedes Principal Andrea Stella Debut Monaco 1966 GPs 994 Constructors’ titles 10 Last season 1st. Held their nerve to close out the constructors’ and drivers’ double last season, albeit with the latter going to the wire as they rather tied themselves in knots trying to be fair to both drivers. Enter this year a little off the front but in a season likely to be marked by a fierce development battle, will expect to exploit their huge strengths in bringing the car on with alacrity and be in the mix in no short order.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 pm

Chiefs reportedly trade All-Pro corner Trent McDuffie to Rams for first-round pick

• Kansas City gain 29th pick in this year’s draft

• Rams also have the 13th selection in 2026 draft

The Los Angeles Rams are acquiring All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie from the Kansas City Chiefs in a blockbuster trade that includes the 29th overall pick of this year’s draft, ESPN reported on Wednesday.

The Chiefs reportedly would also receive the Rams’ fifth- and sixth-round selections in this year’s draft as well as a third-round pick in 2027.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:40 pm

Intercontinental World Cup playoffs in doubt as Iraq squad face travel chaos

• Iraq team due in Mexico for playoff final on 31 March

• Middle East crisis has made travel plans uncertain

The intercontinental World Cup playoffs are in doubt with officials from the Iraq Football Association (IFA) in crisis talks with Fifa over concerns they may be unable to take part in the final scheduled for Mexico later this month.

The Guardian has learned that the IFA received a letter from Iraq’s national airline, Iraqi Airways, and the Ministry of Transportation informing them that the country’s airspace will remain closed for “at least four weeks”, which would leave around 40% of the squad unable to travel.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:15 pm

With or without Lionel Messi, Inter Miami’s Trump visit means something | Leander Schaerlaeckens

The MLS champions face a familiar conundrum: lend credence to a warmongering administration, or sit out and draw heat

Donald Trump was not at the White House when the military he commands began bombing Iran over the weekend. He was at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Florida, following the action from a makeshift situation room apparently built from those curtains that you can wheel away. That’s also where he was when American forces kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife a few weeks earlier.

On Thursday, however, Trump will be at the White House for the really important business – namely, receiving Inter Miami as winners of the 2025 MLS Cup.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:00 am

Manchester United’s Jack Fletcher given six-match ban for homophobic slur

• Incident took place at EFL Trophy game with Barnsley

• Player ‘truly sorry for the offensive word that I used’

Jack Fletcher – the son of club legend Darren Fletcher – has received a six-game ban and been fined £1,500 for calling a Barnsley player a “gay boy”, with the Manchester United midfielder apologising for his conduct.

Fletcher made the comment when playing for United Under-21s in October’s 5-2 EFL Trophy loss at Oakwell. On 62 minutes Fletcher used the homophobic term in an argument with an unnamed Barnsley player, according to the testimony of Will Davis, the referee, who subsequently sent the 18-year-old off. Fletcher admitted the charge, with both the opponent and the FA regulatory commission accepting he did not wish to be intentionally homophobic.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:02 pm

China sets lowest GDP growth target for decades as it braces for economic slowdown

‘High-quality growth’ target of 4.5-5% outlined at Two Sessions as Chinese premier talks of complex situations at home and abroad

• What are China’s Two Sessions and why do they matter?

China has set its target for GDP growth to a record low of 4.5-5%, the first time since 1991 that the figure has dropped below 5%, reflecting an economic strategy that is shifting away from export-led growth to a model that leaders hope will be more resilient to external shocks.

Li Qiang, China’s premier, announced the target for 2026 in the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s annual parliamentary gathering, which began on Thursday.

Published: March 5, 2026, 5:47 am

Texas lawmaker admits he had affair with aide who died by suicide

Tony Gonzales claims God has forgiven him for affair with Regina Ann Santos-Aviles, who set herself on fire

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The US House representative Tony Gonzales, a Republican from Texas, admitted to having an affair with an aide who died by suicide last year.

Gonzales acknowledged the affair in an interview with the conservative media personality known as Joe Pags.

Published: March 5, 2026, 12:36 am

Canadian PM Mark Carney offers to team up with Australia as ‘strategic cousins’ to push back against dominant superpowers

Visiting PM tells Australia’s parliament ‘middle power’ countries must work together on defence, trade and AI

Canada and Australia will be stronger negotiating together with superpowers including Donald Trump’s America, acting as “strategic cousins” rather than competitors, Mark Carney has told the Australian federal parliament.

In a major address in Canberra on the last full day of his visit to Australia, the Canadian prime minister called for enhanced cooperation on critical minerals, defence and trade, and announced Australia would join the G7 critical minerals alliance, the largest grouping of democratic countries with major reserves in the world.

Published: March 4, 2026, 11:30 pm

Binge drinking rises sharply among gen Z in their early 20s

Research challenges idea of ‘generation sensible’ as alcohol and drug use increase after teenage years

Binge drinking rates among gen Z have risen sharply since their teenage years, according to research that challenges their reputation as “generation sensible”.

Almost seven in 10 (68%) 23-year-olds reported binge drinking in the past year, while nearly a third (29%) said they did so at least monthly, up from 10% at age 17.

Published: March 5, 2026, 12:01 am

Nepal votes in election pitting entrenched old guard against a powerful youth movement

The general election is the first since gen-Z protests forced Nepal’s then-prime minister to quit

Nearly six months after a wave of unprecedented youth-led protests forced Nepal’s then prime minister to quit, people have begun voting in a general election that is shaping up to be a high-stakes showdown between the entrenched old guard and a powerful youth movement.

Key figures contesting the election include the Marxist former prime minister seeking a return to office, a rapper-turned-mayor bidding for the youth vote, and the newly elected leader of the powerful Nepali Congress party.

Published: March 5, 2026, 2:05 am

Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests

Analysis shows average levels are 30cm higher than thought, and up to 150cm in south-east Asia and Indo-Pacific

Sea levels around the world have been underestimated due to inaccurate modelling, with research suggesting ocean levels are far higher than previously understood.

The finding could significantly affect assessments of the future impacts of global heating and the effects on coastal settlements.

Published: March 4, 2026, 4:00 pm

Syngenta says it will stop making pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease

Company will halt production of controversial paraquat weed killer by end of June as it faces thousands of lawsuits

Syngenta, maker of a controversial pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease, said on Tuesday that it would stop making its paraquat weed killer by the end of June.

The announcement comes as the company is facing several thousand lawsuits brought by people in the US who allege they developed Parkinson’s disease due to their exposure to Syngenta’s paraquat products.

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:18 pm

World’s largest krill harvester at centre of row over ‘blue tick’ sustainability label

Aker QRILL is facing criticism of its fishery management amid calls by environmentalists for curbs on Antarctic fishing of the keystone species

Environmental groups have objected to the recommendation of a “blue tick” sustainability label being awarded to a Norwegian krill fishing giant, amid concerns over concentrated fishing pressure and dramatic climate-driven effects on the Antarctic’s fragile ecosystem.

Norway’s Aker QRILL, the world’s largest harvester of krill, a tiny crustacean and keystone of Antarctica’s fragile ecosystem, and its sister company, Aker BioMarine, produce feed additives for aquaculture and dietary supplements for pets and humans.

Published: March 4, 2026, 11:00 am

Google faces lawsuit after Gemini chatbot allegedly instructed man to kill himself

Lawsuit is first wrongful death case brought against Google over flagship AI product after death of Jonathan Gavalas

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Last August, Jonathan Gavalas became entirely consumed with his Google Gemini chatbot. The 36-year-old Florida resident had started casually using the artificial intelligence tool earlier that month to help with writing and shopping. Then Google introduced its Gemini Live AI assistant, which included voice-based chats that had the capability to detect people’s emotions and respond in a more human-like way.

“Holy shit, this is kind of creepy,” Gavalas told the chatbot the night the feature debuted, according to court documents. “You’re way too real.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:20 pm

After months of speculation, Gayle King is staying at CBS News

The morning show host’s contract extension is a victory for the Bari Weiss-led network news division

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CBS News has signed a new deal with Gayle King after intense speculation about the future of the CBS Mornings co-host’s role at the network.

King has been the centerpiece of the network’s morning show for years now, and her departure would have been a huge blow to the Bari Weiss-led network news division, which also recently lost another marquee talent with the departure of 60 Minutes correspondent Anderson Cooper.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:10 pm

Trump administration’s bid to halt New York City congestion toll blocked in court

Judge notes New York legislature passed $9 fee and it was signed into law by governor before federal approvals

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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to halt New York’s first-in-the-nation congestion fee meant to reduce traffic and pump revenue into the region’s ageing transit system.

Lewis Liman, a US district judge, on Tuesday ruled that the US Department of Transportation lacked the authority to unilaterally rescind approval of the $9 toll, which was initially greenlighted by Joe Biden.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:59 pm

Elon Musk takes witness stand in trial over Twitter takeover

Twitter investors allege the billionaire publicly derided the social network to sink its stock price and buy it at a bargain

Elon Musk took the stand on Wednesday in a trial brought by Twitter investors, who allege the billionaire committed securities fraud as he was buying the social media company in 2022. The class-action lawsuit alleges Musk agreed to buy Twitter but then waffled for months, attacking the company with the goal of bringing down the stock price to get a better bargain.

After contentious legal wrangling, Musk did eventually buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, his original offer, totalling around $44bn. Musk testified on Wednesday that he didn’t realize his attacks on the company, mostly done via tweet on Twitter itself, would lower the company’s stock price or hurt its investors.

Published: March 4, 2026, 8:47 pm

Ukraine war briefing: Russia claims LNG tanker in Mediterranean hit by drones

The Arctic Metagaz had been carrying 61,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas when it exploded; Ukrainian drones reported to have hit southern Russia. What we know on day 1,471

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has accused Ukraine of carrying out a attack on one of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, which exploded and sank into the Mediterranean Sea off Libya. Explosions were reported on the Arctic Metagaz, which had been carrying 61,000 tonnes of LNG, on Tuesday night when the ship was about 150 miles (240km) off the coast of Libya. Ukraine has not commented on the sinking on the ship, which had been under US and EU sanctions. Russia’s transport ministry had claimed that the Arctic Metagaz had been hit by Ukrainian drones launched from the Libyan coast.

Ukrainian drones damaged Russian civilian sites in the south-western region of Saratov, Roman Busgarin, the area’s governor said early on Thursday. Saratov airport and other airports in the southern and central regions were closed late on Wednesday and early on Thursday. Three injuries were reported.

A prolonged energy crisis caused by the widening war in the Middle East may offer the Russian war machine an economic lifeline just as it was beginning to show signs of strain over its war in Ukraine. Russia could receive a windfall if disruption in the Middle East pushes buyers towards its energy, while a possible slowdown in western arms supplies to Ukraine as the US military action in Iran continues could give Russia a further boost.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that trilateral talks with Washington and Moscow about ending Ukraine’s war in Russia would resume, once the situation in Iran and the Middle East permitted. The Ukrainian president also said that he spoke to the king of Bahrain and the crown prince of Kuwait about the conflict in the Middle East on Wednesday.

Ukraine has said it will boycott Friday’s opening ceremony of the Paralympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy, over the participation of Russian athletes. Athletes from Russia and Belarus had been banned from the 2022 Winter Paralympics over its war in Ukraine, but were allowed to compete as neutral athletes in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Poland were set to join Ukraine in its boycott on Friday.

Published: March 5, 2026, 2:46 am

Papua New Guinea offers cash for guns as amnesty opens to combat escalating tribal violence

Weapons amnesty and buyback scheme will run until August as PM James Marape says illegal guns ‘destroying families and villages’

Papua New Guinea has asked residents to surrender illegal firearms in a bid to remove tens of thousands of weapons from the country, as it grapples with escalating violence and tribal fighting in the Highlands region.

The police minister, Sir John Pundari, said the national gun amnesty and buyback scheme started on 27 February and it would run until late August.

Published: March 5, 2026, 12:35 am

Blackout in Cuba leaves millions without power amid US oil chokehold

Latest outage darkens island facing dwindling oil reserves and increasing pressure from Washington

A blackout hit the western half of Cuba on Wednesday, leaving millions of people in Havana and beyond without power in the latest outage to affect an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electricity grid.

The government’s Electric Union confirmed the outage on social platform X, saying it affected people from the eastern town of Pinar del Rio to the central town of Camaguey.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:42 pm

Europe’s next-generation fighter jet project may collapse if row continues, says warplane maker

Dassault Aviation says €100bn project may soon be ‘dead’ if Airbus will not agree on how to share workload

France and Germany’s next-generation fighter jet project could soon be “dead”, one of the two companies tasked with delivering it has warned, amid a worsening corporate rift over who gets to build the aircraft.

Dassault Aviation, France’s leading warplane maker, said Airbus’s defence arm – which represents Germany and Spain – needed to cooperate on the €100bn programme otherwise it would collapse.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:54 pm

Tales of the Suburbs by John Grindrod review – an entertaining alternative history of queer Britain

From London’s commuter belt to the country village gay club, these portraits of LGBTQ+ life are filled with humour, compassion and observational flair

Generations of readers have loved Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City novels. His chronicle of queer life began in 1976 in the eclectic glamour of San Francisco’s Barbary Lane, where queer people learned who they were and how to live their lives. But even Maupin relocated in the end. The most recent instalment, Mona of the Manor, saw one of its key characters move to the Cotswolds to navigate a very different kind of village.

The social historian John Grindrod nods to Maupin in this fantastically entertaining alternative history of queer life in Britain, which departs from the usual tales of city-based freedom and discovery to tell the stories of people who grew up in the suburbs. “The suburbs” resist easy definition, and Grindrod handles this lightly. Sometimes they’re marked out by social class, sometimes by geography, each facet blurring into the other. His locations range from London’s commuter belt to hamlets, farms and towns, from the edges of Portsmouth and Hull to pockets of Glasgow and Wilmslow and a tiny village in Lincolnshire, where a gay builder is protected from homophobic abuse in the pub by the local darts team.

Published: March 5, 2026, 7:00 am

‘Fame is the worst thing for us as human beings’: Naomi Scott on scream queens, Disney princesses and finding her own voice

After major roles in horror hit Smile 2 and the live-action Aladdin, the actor is returning to her first love: music. She talks faith, fame and why singing is more freeing than cinema

When Naomi Scott was 27 she had what she refers to now as a “quarter-life crisis”. She had been working as an actor since she was a teenager, swapping bit parts in adverts for plum roles in high-profile Disney TV shows and big-budget Hollywood blockbusters including Aladdin (she played Princess Jasmine) and Elizabeth Banks’s Charlie’s Angels remake. She had also married young, after meeting her husband, ex-professional footballer Jordan Spence, at her local church in east London. Worried that the path she’d taken had its destination already mapped out, she felt frustrated, as if she hadn’t really “mourned the other versions of my life”, as the now 32-year-old puts it. Part of that process, it turned out, was returning to her first love: music.

“I felt I had to go back to basics, to a childlike writing process,” she explains, sipping a black coffee in a vast, sparsely decorated cafe in Hackney, east London, her faded red hair contrasting with the beige backdrop. “Just me on the piano at 14, allowing whatever comes naturally to come. So that’s what I did.” Music had always been in her orbit, be it via singing in a church choir or later working with the bonkers pop production house Xenomania. Somewhere along the way, however, acting had taken over.

Published: March 5, 2026, 8:00 am

The Bride! review – Jessie Buckley is electrifying as frizzy-haired, black-tongued monster’s wife

The actor has a blast as bride to Christian Bale’s lonely creature in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s darkly comic and gleefully bizarre reimagining of the 1935 film

Did you know that “Frankenstein” isn’t the name of the monster, but the mad scientist who created him? The answer is almost certainly yes. But that’s no thanks to the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein, which appears to have created this monstrous misconception – because let’s face it, the idea of a middle-aged Swiss scientist getting married isn’t all that shocking. In that sensational Frankenstein sequel with Boris Karloff returning as the monster, Elsa Lanchester was his bride and Mary Shelley, a doubling that may have inspired this new riff on the monster’s other half from writer-director Maggie Gyllenhaal. There’s another barnstorming performance from Jessie Buckley as the sinister spouse, leaving savage bite marks all over the scenery and on her gallant co-star Christian Bale. It’s her name, not the title, that deserves the exclamation mark..

This new monster’s-wife tale is a rackety, violent black comedy with twists of Rocky Horror and extended homages to the top-hat-and-tails sophistication of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. It’s also a gangster joyride from the roaring 20s and 30s with Mr and Mrs F-M reimagined as a kind of post-death Bonnie and Clyde. It takes as its premise the idea that Mary Shelley is an angry ghost, spewing out into the shadowy netherworld her patrician contempt for the mediocre menfolk that surrounded her in life, and longing for a suitable living woman to insinuate herself back into.

Published: March 4, 2026, 8:00 pm

‘A woman of her time, in the worst way’: Industry, Ghislaine Maxwell and the Epstein scandal

An heiress helping to traffic young women to brutal billionaires: the finale of the banker drama used one of its characters to take on a huge real-life scandal

Just who is Yasmin Kara-Hanani? It’s a question that has dogged Industry’s trauma-logged heiress since the series began in 2020. “Who have I married?” wonders Henry Muck, Yasmin’s hapless aristocratic new husband about his ruthlessly ambitious bride in her Lady Macbeth era.

The season four finale solves the mystery with a shocking Epstein-inspired arc. As the Tender scandal spirals, revealing the payment processor/wannabe bank as a front for Russian intelligence, the former Lady Muck cuts and runs from her marriage to Henry, as well as her job in communications at Tender. She is now carving a niche for herself trafficking young women to a transnational crew of brutal billionaires hellbent on breaking the social contract nation by nation. Turns out, Yasmin (Marisa Abela) is a millennial-style take on Ghislaine Maxwell. It’s a ruinous evolution perversely pitched as a dream realised.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:39 pm

Breaking Social review – Rutger Bregman leads an irresistible rallying cry for global activism

Fredrik Gertten travels the world meeting activists who have had enough of corruption, kleptocracy and structural inequality – while Bregman’s nuggets of wisdom are a joy

Bicycling Dutch historian Rutger Bregman does not identify as an optimist. He says that optimism makes people lazy, complacent that history is going in the right direction. Instead he describes himself as a “possibilist”, a believer in the possibility that things can be different. Bregman is interviewed in this film about corruption, kleptocracy and structural inequality. The director is documentary-maker Fredrik Gertten who travels the world meeting activists who have had enough.

First, the cold hard facts. Journalist and corruption expert Sarah Chayes, a former adviser to the Obama administration, does an impressive job summarising her analysis of global kleptocracy. In Malta, the son of the murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, killed after exposing corruption at the highest levels of government, investigates the new scandal of “golden passports”. The film’s main focus is activism in Chile and the US. Amazon workers in New York unionise (and have a good laugh at their boss Jeff Bezos’s trip to space). In Chile, feminists march and climate activists go into battle against mining companies responsible for drought.

Published: March 5, 2026, 7:00 am

Seth Meyers on Trump spilling military secrets: ‘He’s so excited to bomb people, he can’t help himself’

Late-night hosts on Tuesday addressed the war in Iran, the closing of Papa Johns restaurants and the upcoming White House correspondents dinner

Late-night hosts criticized Donald Trump’s attacks on Iran, the problem with advising Americans to evacuate the Middle East and the closure of many college students’ favorite pizza takeout spot.

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:31 pm

Harry Styles: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally review – nice all the time. Good, occasionally

(Columbia)
The music on Styles’s new album is muted, subtle and pleasant – but from the title downwards, he has a real problem with words

Everything about the launch of Harry Styles’s fourth solo album underlines that its author is a very big deal indeed. Record stores in the UK are opening at midnight or first thing in the morning on the day of release, the better for fans to avail themselves of a copy at once. Styles has been announced as curator of this year’s Meltdown festival at London’s Southbank Centre, an honour previously bestowed on Scott Walker, Patti Smith, Yoko Ono, Ornette Coleman and David Bowie. Last week’s Brit awards featured not merely a beautifully choreographed performance of the album’s lead single, Aperture, but a comedy skit that was, essentially, a two-and-a-half-minute-long advert for Styles’s new album: there was no doubt who the organisers thought the star of the show was. Most striking of all, the accompanying tour largely eschews actual touring in favour of lengthy residencies in one venue per country, or even continent: North America is covered by a staggering 30 dates at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The expectation seemed to be that Styles’s fans are so devoted, they’ll cross the country to see him, rather than vice versa.

This sense, that people will travel wherever Harry Styles wants them to, attends the album itself. It is devoid of unequivocal pop bangers along the lines of As It Was or Watermelon Sugar. Aperture’s hazy, post-club mood wasn’t a soft launch. Whether it’s dealing in mid-tempo house beats topped with plangent piano chords, as on American Girls, or the acoustic singer-songwriter-isms of Paint By Numbers, a lot of what’s here feels like music made in the small hours, with the curtains drawn against the dawn. It somehow manages to sound understated even on Are You Listening Yet? – which variously features a clattering dance rhythm, a bassline not unlike that of Reel 2 Real’s I Like to Move It and a spoken word vocal that inexorably recalls Robbie Williams’s Rock DJ – perhaps because it doesn’t really have a chorus, or rather, the part you assume is going to lead into the chorus turns out to be the chorus itself.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 am

Corinne Bailey Rae: ‘If you weren’t tits-out-for-the-lads, they called you middle of the road’

Her first album was a huge hit – then she faced the sudden tragedy of her husband’s early death. She describes the rupture of grief, her return to music and the harsh reality of fame as a woman in the 00s

Twenty years ago, Corinne Bailey Rae had her first huge hit single, and her only one. Put Your Records On was one of the great feelgood anthems of 2006. A warm, breezy hymn to authenticity, its key message was keep playing those songs you love, and don’t give a toss about what others tell you is cool. The single was accompanied by her first self-titled album, which topped the charts in the UK and reached number four in the US.

If there was one thing Bailey Rae seemed assured of, it was longevity. She wrote or co-wrote her own songs, had a voice that was compared to that of Billie Holiday and Minnie Riperton, there was a timelessness to her music and she was super smart (four As at A-level, if you must know). Then she was hit by a tragedy that derailed her. In 2008, her husband of seven years and fellow musician Jason Rae died of an accidental drug overdose.

Published: March 4, 2026, 5:00 am

‘We had no future. So we made a future for ourselves’: the untold history of Welsh reggae sound systems

A country known more for rock and choral music became a hotspot of the dub reggae sound system scene in the 70s. Rival crews recall Cardiff’s riotous parties – and racist hostility

Growing up Black in Wales in the 1970s, “it was like we were cut off from the rest of mankind”, says Lawrence “Tylo” Taylor. “There was nothing for young Black people.”

Despite Cardiff being home to one of the oldest Black communities in the UK, stretching back to the 19th century, it could be a tough place. “As children, the police would abuse you, calling you a Black bastard,” Tylo says. “There was pure racism in school and you’d be singled out by teachers and belittled. We grew up very disillusioned.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:29 pm

Gloria Don’t Speak by Lucy Apps review – tender portrait of a woman with a learning disability

Longlisted for the Women’s prize, this ambitious debut journeys into the inner world of a vulnerable teenager who is left traumatised by a toxic friendship

Lucy Apps’s debut novel tells the story of 19-year-old Gloria, who is living in east London with her mum in the summer of 1999. Gloria has a learning disability and is past the age when the state might offer her support. Often she is happy enough “to stop outdoors where it is nice and busy, and watch things happen and be part of it”.

But sometimes people steal from her, or shout abuse. Then she has a “heavy feeling inside her” because she has no option except “to walk around the parks and streets on her own trying not to attract too much attention”. When she develops a friendship with Jack, she is happy because: “He has no one to talk to and she has no one to listen to, so they can fit with each other.”

Published: March 5, 2026, 9:00 am

Chasing Freedom by Simukai Chigudu review – a powerful memoir of postcolonial unease

A historian and exponent of ‘Rhodes must fall’ explores how political liberation doesn’t always bring personal freedom

To be part of Zimbabwe’s “Born Free” generation was to be handed a promise: that your life would no longer be shaped by colonial rule. Skin colour would not dictate the right to vote, learn or work. For Simukai Chigudu, born in 1986, six years after independence, that promise was stamped on him from the very beginning: “Your name, Simukai, it means to stand up,” his father, a former liberation fighter, tells him.

Yet, as Chigudu reflects in his compelling memoir, the end of colonial rule does not mean freedom from historical events and how they reverberate in everyday life. He tells two interlinked stories: Zimbabwe’s brutal war of independence, and his own search for belonging in the years that followed. It is a wide-ranging, restless book, passing through Uganda, Rwanda, Ireland and Mexico City. Yet at its centre are Zimbabwe and Britain, “former colony and metropole”, and the unfinished business between them.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:00 am

The Quantity Theory of Morality by Will Self review – raucously inventive state-of-the-nation satire

Thirty-five years on from his debut collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Self takes aim at London’s chattering classes in an excoriating vision of moral decline

In Will Self’s 1991 debut collection The Quantity Theory of Insanity, an art therapist named Misha Gurney finds himself involuntarily sectioned in the psychiatric hospital where he is employed. In the title story, Misha’s father is revealed as a friend and early associate of the hospital’s chief psychiatrist Zack Busner, a recurring character in Self’s fiction until the present day.

In his first incarnation, Busner is engaged in testing the titular theory, by whose metric “the surface of the collective psyche was like the worn, stripy ticking of an old mattress. If you punched into its coiled hide at any point, another part would spring up – there was no action without reaction, no laughter without tears, no normality without its pissing accompanist.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:00 am

Even for fans like me, the Pokémon 30th anniversary ‘stuff’ is a bit much

With the wait for the new Winds and Waves games set to stretch into 2027, Pokemon’s 30th anniversary celebrations have plugged the gap with a deluge of nostalgia bait. Is the franchise in danger of losing its heart?

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It has been almost impossible to escape Pokémon for the past few weeks. To mark the 30th anniversary of the original games, the Pokémon Company has been on an unprecedented promotional nostalgia trip for the entire month: there was a campaign where celebrities gushed about their favourite Pokémon, gifting us the memorable sight of Lady Gaga singing with a Jigglypuff, and Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (great Game Boy Advance remakes of the original 1996 games) were rereleased on the Nintendo Switch. The Natural History Museum in London has opened a special Pokémon pop-up shop, and a limited-edition greyscale Pikachu plush toy sold out in about three seconds (they will be making more, to the disappointment of scalpers everywhere).

And all that is just the start. We’ve seen the opening of a Pokémon theme park in Tokyo, the announcement of a tiny Game Boy-shaped music player that plays the games’ soundtrack, a collaboration with high-fashion brand JimmyPaul that had its own runway show … it’s been endless. Regular readers will know that I am exactly the target audience for this festival of Pokémon nostalgia: the first generation of Pokémon kids and now hurtling towards 40. And yet I have been unmoved by most of this, even slightly annoyed by it.

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:00 pm

And the least likable character is … how Oscar season became dominated by difficult people

From Marty Supreme to One Battle After Another, this awards run has been populated by a harder-to-love group of spiky characters

Broadly speaking, the best way to get an acting Oscar is to play someone lovable, or someone lovably hateable. Not every acting winner fits that binary, of course, but the history of all four categories is filled with fascinatingly bad behavior (Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, JK Simmons in Whiplash) as well as expressions of sheer delight at the combination of actor and lovable character (Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love). This year’s crop of acting nominees isn’t exactly short of rooting interests: Michael B Jordan makes his pair of 1930s gangsters charming twice over in Sinners while still distinguishing between their individual nuances, and Benicio del Toro’s even-keeled activist is highly lovable in One Battle After Another. Elsewhere, though, there’s definitely a stronger-than-usual strain of characters who defy the usual standards of easy likability.

The importance of likability in an Oscar campaign is akin to its importance in a political one – though in the case of the Academy awards, performers are campaigning twice, for themselves as actors and, essentially, for their characters as part of the cinematic firmament. That’s why likability is arguably the secret accelerant to the longtime trend of the awards going to actors playing real-life figures. It’s not just about a physical transformation or seamless impersonation, because many of those biographical performance aren’t really that when you put them side by side with the real thing. It’s that extra rooting interest that comes from embodying Freddie Mercury, Winston Churchill, Stephen Hawking, Abraham Lincoln, Judy Garland – people who Academy voters probably already like or admire to some degree, at least in the abstract. Suffering, too, can help create an easier sense of empathy.

Published: March 4, 2026, 10:02 am

Harry Styles on Liam Payne’s death: ‘It’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways’

The musician reflected on the death of his former One Direction bandmate in an interview with Zane Lowe to promote his new album

Harry Styles has reflected on the death of his One Direction bandmate Liam Payne in a new interview with Zane Lowe.

“It’s so difficult to lose a friend,” Styles said. “It’s difficult to lose any friend, but it’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:51 pm

Berlin film festival head to keep job after Gaza free speech row

German government convened a crisis meeting after several prize winners condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians

The American head of the Berlin film festival, Tricia Tuttle, will keep her job after a free speech row over Gaza, but the event will have to consider a new code of conduct to “fight antisemitism”, the German culture ministry has said.

Tuttle’s position came under threat after an awards gala at the end of the 76th edition last month, in which several prize winners condemned Israel’s actions against Palestinians from the stage.

Published: March 4, 2026, 4:50 pm

‘He paints phalluses the way others paint landscapes’: the disturbing genius of erotica pioneer Félicien Rops

A new exhibition at Kunsthaus Zurich revisits the Belgian artist whose wild women of the demimonde scandalised the belle epoque – and still shock audiences today

During an oppressively hot week in Paris in 1878, the bohemian Belgian artist Félicien Rops painted a picture of a woman walking her pet pig. In it, the woman is blindfolded and naked – bar some stockings, long black gloves and a jaunty feathered hat – and the pig has a cute, pink curlicue of a tail. Pornocrates – which roughly translates as “the ruler of fornication” – is an eye worm. Once seen, it’s hard to forget.

Rops recalled composing his most famous work “in an overheated apartment, full of different smells, where the opopanax and cyclamen gave me a slight fever conducive towards production or even towards reproduction”. As viewers of Laboratory of Lust, a new exhibition on Rops at Kunsthaus Zurich, will discover to their amazement, or perhaps indignation, mating and painting were indelibly linked in Rops’ psyche.

Published: March 4, 2026, 7:00 am

Gen Z flocks to Chinese medicine as trust in US health system plummets: ‘It’s so personalized to being human’

As Americans embrace ‘alternative’ remedies, people online joke that they’re ‘Chinamaxxing’ their wellness routines

Did you drink ice water today? If you did, that was “not very Chinese of you”, according to Sherry Zhu, a 23-year-old Chinese American creator based in New Jersey. If you were really serious about “becoming Chinese”, you would be sipping hot water every day, she warned in a TikTok video with millions of views. “I really do feel like, digestion-wise, a lot better when I’m drinking hot water,” she later explained to GQ.

Zhu’s guidance is taken from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a health system that dates back 5,000 years and offers a holistic approach to treating symptoms – physically, emotionally and spiritually. Other creators of Chinese descent have their own TCM hacks: keep your feet warm and your periods will be more bearable. Drink tea made with goji berries, jujubes and ginger as a cure-all. Move your body every day to promote the flow of qi, or internal energy. “Do my Chinese baddie routine with me,” they caption their videos in half-authoritative, half-joking tones. “Advice from your Chinese big sister.”

Published: March 4, 2026, 3:00 pm

Relentless sun and ruthless populists: how the climate crisis will change the next 20 years

Former diplomat Arthur Snell says a heating planet is accelerating conflict and migration – and fostering a new age of empire. Democracies are dangerously unprepared, he warns

After a diplomatic career spent in the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, the last place Arthur Snell expected to cheat death was on holiday.

But it was an uncomfortably close brush with a falling boulder while climbing in the Swiss Alps that helped to bring his personal and professional lives together. His beloved mountains were, he realised, becoming less stable thanks to a changing climate. And if physical geography drives the way states exercise their power, as classic geopolitical theory argues, then a heating planet must be dislodging more than rocks.

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:00 pm

The best beginner pickleball gear, according to pros

The right shoes, paddles, and eye protection can improve your game while preventing injuries

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Maybe it was the contrarian in me, or maybe just the tennis player, but I must confess that I spent years dissing pickleball during its meteoric rise. When I finally decided to give up my grinching and try the sport I had derided as “mini tennis”, I discovered what I’d been missing.

Learning how to play was fun, simple and affordable. I began my journey with a beginner class at Court 16, a New York-based indoor tennis and pickleball club where I started working with coach Dylan DeBiase, assistant director of tennis.

Pickleball shoes:
Wilson Pickle Pro

Pickleball paddle
Joola Journey Pickleball Paddle

Published: March 4, 2026, 8:15 pm

A moment that changed me: my girlfriend criticised my kisses – and it led to the best decision of my life

She said kissing me was like licking an ashtray, and I knew I had to quit smoking. But with a 40-a-day habit, it was no easy task ...

In 1970, as an 18-year-old college freshman in Boston, living away from home for the first time, I started to smoke cigarettes. A pack a day grew in short order to two packs a day, or a cigarette about every 30 minutes.

I choreographed my life around my smokes, puffing away after every meal, taking a drag with a drink and blowing smoke rings as I wrote, usually late into the night. I needed no pretext for smoking, but found plenty; every occasion fit the bill.

Published: March 4, 2026, 6:45 am

Rise of the veavage: how one look came to rule the red carpet

Forget cleavage. A deep V plunging to the waist is the current style – as seen on Gwyneth Paltrow and many others this year. Why is it suddenly so popular?

Good news for anyone looking to portion off their skin in new and creative ways: we have entered the era of the “veavage”. This new term for a deep, V-shaped cleavage plumbed new depths this weekend at the SAG awards. As seen on (deep breath) Kristen Bell, Jenna Ortega, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Paulson, Odessa A’zion and Lauren Miller, this neck-to-navel style appeared on wafer-thin tops and second-skin dresses. In a red carpet first, veavage somehow outweighed cleavage 2:1. Other recent veavage-flaunters about town include Zendaya, Emma Stone, Elle Fanning and Erin Doherty. Think the boyband JLS meets Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction, by way of a couture gown cut with exacting technical rigour.

The talking point is not the clothes, though. It’s what they leave behind, which is the boobs. Or at least the bit where the boobs usually are. Because the great thing about this trend is that you don’t need boobs to do it. In fact, it’s better without. Or a bra. Nipple tape, which is worn to stop nipples sticking out in frigid temperatures, is probably useful but otherwise you could see it as a cost-saving exercise – a way of using up less fabric. Right?

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:03 am

A quick hack for looking A Bit Dressed Up? Just add a dash of shine | Jess Cartner-Morley

If you want to add some glitz to elevate your look, try shiny earrings, metallic shoes or a snazzy belt

Once in a while, it is fun to pull out all the stops and get properly dressed up. To wear something gorgeous and probably impractical, do your makeup carefully, rather than in two and a half minutes, and coerce a family member into taking a photo before you leave the house.

It is awards season, and red carpet fashion hoopla is all around us. But for those of us who don’t have an Oscar nomination, the nights that call for weapons-grade glam are few and far between, especially at this time of year. Which is fine by me because, frankly, who has the time? In real life, for most of us, quick styling hacks when you want to look A Bit Dressed Up are way more useful than a ball gown. Accessories that elevate your look from blah to belle, easy tricks that give your outfit a sense of occasion. These, not the bells-and-whistles party dresses, are the real treasures of your wardrobe.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

YSL lights up Paris fashion week show with return of Le Smoking suit

Anthony Vaccarello marks decade at helm of fashion house with powered-up take on Yves Saint Laurent’s classic

The most famous suit in the world, Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, has returned to the Paris catwalk 60 years after its invention.

Designed by the late couturier to be worn by men in smoking rooms to protect clothing from the smell of cigars, he adapted it for women, slimming the trousers and lapels. It wasn’t a runaway success – only one sold from his 1966 collection – but it became a global symbol of power dressing and gender dismantling, and would appear in every collection until Saint Laurent retired in 2002.

Published: March 4, 2026, 9:23 am

Thursday news quiz: Pokémon, a ‘Pastafarian’ and Cheggers plays population!

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

Thursday rolls around once again and this week’s quiz – thanks to Anaïs Mims’ whimsical illustration – asks whether you really followed the news, or whether you disappeared down a few particularly strange rabbit holes during the week. Fifteen tests of your topical, general and pop culture knowledge await you, including an exciting new round featuring the legendary Keith Chegwin, which definitely did not just get made up in the pub after too many drinks on a Monday night. There are no prizes, but we enjoy seeing how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 237

Published: March 5, 2026, 6:00 am

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for apple, honey and poppy seed cake | A kitchen in Rome

The chemistry and alchemy of honey’s special kind of sweetness, and how it complements just the right kind of apples in a humble yet delicious cake

Honey is, among other things, a successful embalming agent. It is also a humectant, which isn’t an eager cyborg, but one of many short-chained organic compounds that are hygroscopic, meaning they attract and hold water, which in turn prevents hardening and encourages softness. Other hardworking humectants are glycerine, which is what keeps face creams creamy and hydrating, and sorbitol, which ensures toothpaste can be squeezed and smeared all over the sink and on the mirror. Honey, though, is the humectant that’s most suitable for this week’s recipe: a one-bowl, everyday cake inspired by my neighbour’s Polish honey cake, miodownik, combined with the tortino di mele e papavero (apple and poppy seed cake) enjoyed at a station bar in Bolzano.

Not only does honey keep the cake moist, its sweetness comes largely from fructose, which is naturally sweeter than refined sugar, so the perception of sweetness is much greater even when less is added. I have suggested 160g, but adjust as you see fit. The small amounts of amino acids in honey also mean that the chemical Maillard reaction is more pronounced as the cake bakes, resulting in caramelisation and a crust the colour of chestnut, as well as a deep, nutty flavour. While I am sure all varieties of honey will work well, I can particularly recommend chestnut honey and Greek pine honey, both of which have complicated, almost malty notes that pair well with the apple and the pleasing, slightly bitter but also soil-like taste of poppy seeds.

Published: March 5, 2026, 6:00 am

What a viral speech in Ireland reveals about colonial history and Caribbean English

Linguists say reaction to Irish TD’s remarks reflects shared regional English roots and enduring impact of empire

When the politician Thomas Gould rose to speak in the Irish parliament recently, few expected a lesson in colonial linguistics.

Yet clips of his speech began circulating online last week, with some viewers saying he sounded unmistakably Jamaican. The reaction was animated, particularly among Jamaican heritage communities.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:00 pm

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

With shipping routes disrupted and tensions rising across the region we want to hear from maritime workers, sailors and port workers and others working at sea who are affected

The conflict in the Middle East is disrupting shipping across the region, including in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest maritime routes.

Maritime traffic through the strait, the narrow channel linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, has effectively been closed since strikes on Iran began. Some vessels have been diverted or delayed and ports and shipping companies are dealing with heightened security concerns and uncertainty.

Published: March 4, 2026, 2:08 pm

Beam lifting, digital fashion and a bike race: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: March 4, 2026, 1:57 pm