Schools are using AI counselors to track students’ mental health. Is it safe?

As hundreds of schools implement an automated monitoring tool, educators say that students can find talking to chatbots ‘more natural’ than confiding in a human

• Produced in partnership with EdSurge

The alert came around 7pm.

Brittani Phillips checked her phone. A middle school counselor in Putnam county, Florida, Phillips receives messages from an artificial intelligence-enabled therapy platform that students use during nonschool hours. It flags when a student may be at risk for harming themself or others based on what the student types into a chat.

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

Venezuelan man says his rose tattoos got him deported to El Salvador’s brutal prison: ‘I thought my life had ended’

Trump administration accused Luis Muñoz Pinto of being part of the Tren de Aragua gang. Now living in Colombia he hopes to clear his name and study engineering in the US

It was the busiest hour of the evening in Bolivar Square, one of the most iconic spots in Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. Amid the buzz of smiling tourists, however, Luis Muñoz Pinto sat very still, his head in his hands, as memories of his deportation from the United States to a Salvadorian prison flooded back.

Muñoz Pinto, 27, was one of more than 250 Venezuelan men accused by the Trump administration of being part of the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang and deported from the US to the brutal terrorism mega-prison called Cecot in El Salvador last March.

Published: March 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

To anyone who thinks Trump can bring peace and equality to Iran – I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Going cheap | Marina Hyde

If POTUS can really bomb peace, stability and women’s rights into the Middle East, I’ll take my hat off to him. Judging by his role in Gaza, I won’t hold my breath

Donald Trump says Keir Starmer has damaged the special relationship by not helping him more in the US-Israel war on Iran. But you have to remember that when you do help, Trump pretends you didn’t anyway, and also pisses on your war dead. Still, what could be more enticing than the Americans trying to sell you a timeshare on a war in the Middle East?

And so to Iran. “War is the realm of uncertainty,” said Carl von Clausewitz, who – and not to be a bitch – I still think of as a more impressive military theorist than Pete Hegseth. Certainly, Carl had fewer Crusades tattoos than the US defence secretary. Hegseth is 100% certain about all his nailed-down positions, even the ones in apparent conflict with each other. And it feels like a great sign that he, Marco Rubio and JD Vance already seem to have different rationales for why this war was launched. This is an administration that came to power on an explicit “no more wars” ticket – but look, as Pete keeps saying, this isn’t a regime-change war. If that seems confusing, given he first said it about 10 minutes after US-Israeli strikes had just cratered the ayatollah’s compound, Hegseth has since been on hand to scoff that what’s going down in Iran is “no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise”.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:16 pm

Declutter, define, discard: seven easy and cheap home organization tips, from experts

Organizing your home doesn’t have to use up all your retirement savings, time or peace of mind

Overcurated home organization content has flourished on social media for the past decade: well-lit photos of pantries, closets and bathrooms with contents arranged in clear acrylic bins. Usually, everything is color coordinated.

I love a tidy, organized space, but these images stress me out. My mouth gets dry when I imagine the upkeep necessary to keep those spaces looking pristine. How much does it cost to acquire hundreds of identical storage bins? How long did it take to aesthetically arrange Khloé Kardashian’s cookies like that? Is this really what I’m supposed to be doing with my one wild and precious life?

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:00 pm

‘The Epstein files won’t knock him out’: what Anthony Scaramucci learned in Trump’s inner circle

He lasted just 11 days as White House communications director, before being fired from the Trump administration. The financier and broadcaster discusses working for the president – and becoming his biggest critic

‘If somebody walks into your office and says they’re friends with Donald Trump, they’re either exaggerating the relationship, or they don’t understand the relationship,” says Anthony Scaramucci. “Because nobody is friends with Donald. You’re a transaction in this guy’s field of vision.”

Scaramucci should know. He has been non-friends with Trump for more than 30 years, though these days he’s more an outright enemy. Just as the attention-devouring president once stalked Hillary Clinton on the debate stage, Trump looms large in Scaramucci’s story. The two men seem to haunt each other. When we meet in London during a stopover in his hectic schedule, the conversation rarely drifts away from Trump for more than a few minutes. Conversely, the 62-year-old financier and broadcaster has become one of Trump’s most vocal and penetrating critics. “We fight like New Yorkers,” Scaramucci says. “He doesn’t really come back at me, because he knows I’m going to come back at him.” Unlike Trump’s presumptive friends, Scaramucci does understand Trump, he claims. “There’s something called ‘Trump derangement syndrome’; I think I have ‘Trump reality syndrome’. I know what he is, I know what he does, I know what he’s capable of and I know the danger of him.”

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:00 am

Alejandro González Iñárritu on his Amores Perros art show: ‘This is an anti-AI exhibition’

Oscar-winning director returns to his breakout 2000 hit for an exhibition seven years in the making, giving visitors a new experiential look at his debut film

Alejandro González Iñárritu, the Mexican director, has been widely celebrated for his innovative approach to storytelling. His 2000 debut, Amores Perros, was labeled a “hypertext film” for how its three main threads spiraled out of a central car crash, but were otherwise disconnected. In an interview where he discussed his new Lacma show, Sueño Perro – which sees Iñárritu return to hundreds of hours of footage that never made it into his debut movie – he shared that his father was the one who inspired his unique approach to film.

“My father was naturally a great storyteller,” Iñárritu told me via video from Los Angeles. “He always started with what was almost the end of the story, so he threw you a hook, but then he went back to the middle. He was a great storyteller, always finding ways to get new hooks here and there, to get you to listen to a long story.”

Published: March 3, 2026, 10:07 am

Trump insists Israel did not force US hand on Iran attack as he meets German chancellor – live

US president appears to contradict Marco Rubio remarks that Israel planned to strike Iran first, claiming ‘If anything, I might have forced Israel’s hand’

• People in the US: share your views of the Iran conflict

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In a late night post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said that the US munition stockpiles “at the medium and upper medium grade” have “never been higher or better”.

He added that the US has a “virtually unlimited supply of these weapons”, meaning that “wars can be fought ‘forever’”.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:52 pm

Middle East attacks intensify as Trump says he has rejected Iran’s attempt to talk

US president claims ‘they want to talk. I said: Too Late!’, while Rubio threatens the ‘hardest hits are yet to come’

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Israel and the US intensified their attacks on Iran on Tuesday, launching waves of strikes targeting command and control facilities, strategic state offices and missile launch sites, as Donald Trump said he had rejected what he claimed was an attempt by Tehran to restart negotiations.

Iran retaliated with hundreds of missile and drone attacks against Israel and across the Gulf region, targeting US military bases, embassies and civilian infrastructure.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:34 pm

Minab school bombing: how the worst mass casualty event of the Iran war unfolded – a visual guide

A strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh school during the US-Israeli bombing campaign killed up to 168 people. The Guardian has pieced together the incident and its aftermath using verified footage and images from the site

Above the pastel murals of trees, paintbrushes, crayons and microscopes, black smoke rises. The glass windows of the school have been blown out by the force of the blast, and its curtains hang shredded from the frames.

Against one burned-out wall, the remains of a playground lie scattered: a red plastic slide, a jumble of child-sized chairs. On an overturned bookshelf a pair of pink plastic sandals have been neatly placed, now covered in dust from the blast.

Published: March 3, 2026, 12:45 pm

‘People are gripped by huge fear’: defiance and hope on the streets of Tehran

Bombarded by the US and Israel, Iranians worry about how to survive – and what comes next

• The war in the Middle East in maps, video and photos

Fear, defiance, and quiet celebration intermingled in Tehran with everyday chores, local people said, as Iran’s capital continued to be rocked by American and Israeli airstrikes.

Residents said that many people had moved to the countryside or were trying to do so, believing it was safer away from military targets. In Tehran, military and police installations are located in residential areas and there were rumours security forces were moving into schools and mosques.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:07 pm

Chaos signals Iran struggling to function as war turns into fight for survival

Strikes on Iranian leadership are putting Tehran under unprecedented military and diplomatic pressure

• Middle East crisis – live updates

• The war in the Middle East in maps, video and photos

Iran endured a day of unprecedented military and diplomatic pressure on Tuesday as US airstrikes pushed the death toll in the country above 800 and the offices of Assembly of Experts, the body due to select a replacement for the assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei, were bombed.

It would be an extraordinary security lapse if it emerges that many of the 88 elderly clerics on the assembly had been in the building in Qom voting at the time. “There was another hit today on the new leadership, and it looks like that was pretty substantial,” Trump said at a White House event, although it was unclear what specifically he was talking about.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:32 pm

Benign transition or bloody civil war: what next for Iran after the bombing?

Experts say there are four broad outcomes of attack by US and Israel, which are apparently without a postwar plan for the country

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Piecing together what the US and Israeli officials have said about the attack on Iran, its objectives appear to be to inflict maximum damage on the pillars of the country’s power, specifically its nuclear and missile programmes and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The ultimate objective however, as repeatedly expressed by Donald Trump at least, is to pave the way for a popular uprising that would sweep away the cleric-led regime that has run the country for 47 years. Trump has presented the devastating assault as a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the people of Iran to “take back your government”.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:05 pm

US and Israel offer shifting justifications for Iran war: what we know on day four

Donald Trump said the US and Israel are hitting Iran ‘where it is much more appropriate’

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:31 pm

‘I can’t digest it’: deadliest attack on Israel since war began kills nine and destroys synagogue

Fear and grief mix in the small town of Beit Shemesh, where missile struck ageing bomb shelter

• Middle East crisis – live updates

With 30 people inside the neighbourhood bomb shelter on Sunday afternoon, and sirens wailing outside, Oren Katz went to close the reinforced door.

It was an act of generosity that was typical of the father of four, and it would cost him his life. As he reached the entrance, the shelter took a direct hit from an Iranian missile.

Published: March 3, 2026, 3:14 pm

Why some British expats in Dubai insist it’s business as usual – despite Iran war

Amid schadenfreude back home as UK nationals express their fears, others say they are not leaving anytime soon

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

It is not always seen as a positive when the ruling family of a dictatorship makes a public show of mingling among the people.

On Monday, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the royal who is both president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, joined Dubai’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, for a stroll around Dubai’s mall, before settling down alongside awkward looking officials on the banquette-style seating at one of its most visible cafes.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:00 pm

DoJ renews fight against law firms that stood up to Trump in abrupt reversal

Move comes day after department said it would drop fight against law firms that stood up to Trump’s executive orders

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The US justice department abruptly reversed course on Tuesday and decided it would defend executive orders made by Donald Trump to try to penalize law firms that represented clients or causes the president did not like.

On Monday, the department announced in a court filing that it was dropping its appeal against a ruling by a district court judge that blocked Trump’s retaliatory executive actions against four companies that refused to make a deal with him.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:16 pm

Republican initiative for voter ID in California gathers enough support for ballot measure

Proponents of the measure announce they have collected 1.3m signatures to put the issue on the midterm ballot

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Republican organizers in California announced they have gathered enough signatures to place a measure that would require California voters to present identification every time they vote and for election officials to verify that registered voters are US citizens on the ballot this November.

Proponents of the measure announced that they have collected 1.3 million signatures on a petition to put the issue onto ballot for a vote in the midterm elections, surpassing the 874,641 signatures needed under California state law. Officials must now verify the signatures.

Under the current law, Californians are not required to show or provide identification when casting a ballot in person or by mail. They are, however, required to provide identification when registering to vote. Voters must also swear under penalty of perjury—a felony—that they are a US citizen eligible to vote.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:08 pm

Kristi Noem refuses to retract statement calling Minnesotans killed by federal agents ‘domestic terrorists’

Homeland security secretary was grilled in Senate hearing over immigration enforcement crackdown in Twin Cities

• US politics live – latest updates

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The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. (DHS), Kristi Noem, on Tuesday would not retract her statements calling the two US citizens who were killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis earlier this year “domestic terrorists”, while also claiming that agents do not abide by quotas for arrests.

Appearing before Congress for the first time since the killings, Noem evaded a question by the Senate judiciary committee ranking member, Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, about whether she would take back the false accusations about Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:20 pm

Father of Georgia school shooting suspect found guilty of murder and manslaughter

Prosecutors argued Colin Gray gave 14-year-old son, who is accused of killing four in 2024 shooting, access to firearm

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The father of a teenage boy accused of killing two students and two teachers in a mass shooting at a Georgia high school in 2024 was found guilty on Tuesday of second-degree murder and other charges.

After roughly two weeks of testimony, jurors deliberated for just a few hours before convicting 54-year-old Colin Gray on more than two dozen charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, related to the 4 September fatal shooting at Apalachee high school in Georgia.

Published: March 3, 2026, 6:35 pm

Nancy Mace under House investigation over alleged improper reimbursement requests

Republican is accused of improperly claiming more than $9,000 in funds meant to subsidize housing costs for members of Congress

• US politics live – latest updates

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Nancy Mace, a Republican representative, is under investigation by the House ethics committee over allegations that she may have improperly claimed more than $9,000 in reimbursements meant to subsidize housing costs for members of Congress.

According to a report from the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC), which reviews ethics complaints against lawmakers, the South Carolina representative’s requests for reimbursement had exceeded the total of her DC property expenses during several months in 2023 and 2024, “amounting to an excess of $9,485.46”.

Published: March 3, 2026, 4:56 pm

Judge erases conviction for Detroit man whom police coerced to confess to 1999 murder

George Calicut Jr has been in prison for more than 25 years for murder, though there were no witnesses or evidence against him

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A Detroit-area judge erased a 1999 murder conviction Tuesday of a man who was serving a life prison sentence after prosecutors acknowledged his confession was coerced by a rogue police officer.

In addition, recent DNA testing “further supports the lack of any evidence” connecting George Calicut Jr to the murder of Virgie Perkins at her Detroit home, the Wayne county prosecutor’s office and his lawyers said.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:13 pm

‘The concert ticket industry is broken,’ justice department says as Ticketmaster trial begins

Entertainment giant keeps average of $7.58 of each ticket for events at major concert venues, court hears

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Ticketmaster keeps an average of $7.58 of the price of each ticket for events at major concert venues, an attorney for New York state told jurors at a trial on Tuesday in which dozens of states are seeking to recoup damages for fans.

Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, are accused of abusing their market power to prop up illegal monopolies in the concert industry. The trial in Manhattan could result in the US Department of Justice arguing for a breakup of Live Nation and Ticketmaster or the companies paying compensation to ticket purchasers.

Published: March 3, 2026, 6:12 pm

MS NOW gains viewers after name change, but owner revenue declines

Versant, an NBCUniversal cable spinoff, says MS NOW is growing as its stock falls about 27% in 2026

The US’s biggest liberal-leaning network, MS NOW, has seen double-digit viewership gains since rebranding from MSNBC, the company’s CEO claimed on Tuesday.

“Since the rebrand to MS NOW in the fourth quarter, that momentum has not only held, it has accelerated with double-digit growth in total viewers since November,” said Mark Lazarus, CEO of MS NOW parent company, Versant.

Published: March 3, 2026, 3:46 pm

Airlines in Middle East rule out services resuming before Thursday

Some repatriation flights depart as governments around the world work to extract their citizens from the conflict-hit region

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

The biggest Middle East carriers have ruled out resuming scheduled flights until at least Thursday as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues, denting hopes of a swift return to normal air travel after the first repatriation flights left the United Arab Emirates.

Etihad, based in Abu Dhabi, said its commercial services were suspended until 2pm local time on Thursday 5 March, with Emirates ruling out scheduled flights until midnight on Wednesday.

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:14 pm

Middle East conflict: why is Israel attacking Lebanon? | The Latest

Israel has deployed soldiers on the ground in southern Lebanon and is carrying out heavy airstrikes in the country as conflict in the Middle East continues to spread. It comes after the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched missiles and drones toward Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Beirut-based journalist Will Christou.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:22 pm

US antifa trial tests limits of Trump administration’s domestic terror claims

Jurors hear how July 4 protest outside ICE turned violent, sparking rare federal case against left-wing demonstrators

A little after 11 pm on the 4th of July last year, police officer Jeremiah Zapata, adrenaline pumping through his body, crawled along Tanglewood drive, a quiet residential street on the outskirts of Fort Worth.

A few minutes earlier, an urgent call had come over the radio. A lieutenant responding to a call at the Prairieland detention center, a nearby ICE facility, had been shot. Zapata was one of the first officers to respond to the scene, where another officer told him that the suspects had fled along Tanglewood. Moving slowly in his cruiser underneath a light rain, Zapata used the spotlight on his police cruiser to search for what he assumed the suspect looked like – someone dressed in all black, running with a rifle. Zapata admitted he had “tunnel vision” as he frantically searched for a suspect.

Published: March 3, 2026, 6:20 pm

‘It was very challenging’: the exhibition memorialising Black trans deaths across the US

Artist Sage Ni’Ja Whitson found an unusual way to remember those who were killed or died by suicide between 2018 and 2025

Between 2021 and 2025, Black nonbinary artist Sage Ni’Ja Whitson visited 91 locations across 15 states – in all of these sites a trans, gender nonconforming, or intersex individual had died, either by murder or suicide. At each site they conducted a ceremony of their own to bear witness to what had happened there.

“It was very challenging in ways that I’m continuing to mend from and rest with,” they said. “It is not ‘inexpensive’ on my body and spirit. That cost I knew would be there.”

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:45 pm

Teacher v chatbot: my journey into the classroom in the age of AI

I was a newcomer, negotiating all of usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack

Two years ago, at the age of 39, I began training to be a school teacher. I wanted to teach English – to help young people become stronger readers, writers and thinkers, with a deeper connection to literature. After 15 years of working as a freelance writer and as a novelist, I felt confident that I had something to offer. But the further I progressed in my training, the more uncertain I felt. One particular question taunted me for my lack of an answer. What to do about artificial intelligence?

The immediate dilemma: what does it mean for English instruction that all pupils now have access to free online chatbots that can produce fluid, fairly complex prose on demand? This question sits atop a teetering pile of timeless pedagogical quandaries: What are we actually trying to do in school? How should we go about doing it? How do we know if we’ve succeeded? I was a newcomer, negotiating all of this for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Excellence’: Smithsonian exhibit celebrates HBCUs amid attacks on Black history

The Smithsonian’s African American history museum has partnered with HBCUs to display archival materials

At a time when museums and colleges are facing uncertainty and there is a push to limit the acknowledgment of Black history, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and its five partner historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have launched a new exhibit to put Black history and Black archives at the forefront.

At the Vanguard: Making and Saving History at HBCUs, on view at the NMAAHC now through 19 July, was developed as a part of the History and Culture Access Consortium (HCAC). After At the Vanguard leaves the NMAAHC, it will go on tour to each of the universities, along with other locations that request it.

Published: March 3, 2026, 6:30 pm

What was really behind Block’s Jack Dorsey laying off nearly half his company’s staff?

Dorsey cited AI advances when cutting 4,000 workers, but a weak crypto market and declining stock price may also be behind move

Jack Dorsey cited AI as the driving force behind cutting 40% of his company’s employees, but other factors such as a weak crypto market, overstaffing and a declining stock price may also have motivated the move.

Last week, the financial technology company Block announced that it would lay off 4,000 of its 10,000 workers. Dorsey, Block’s CEO, said in a letter to shareholders that advances in AI “have changed what it means to build and run a company”.

Published: March 3, 2026, 4:00 pm

The Dutch method: could this improve your sleep – and social life?

Some may balk at Netherlanders’ ‘nothing to hide’ approach, but there is evidence their curtain customs could come with health benefits

Name: The Dutch method.

Age: Possibly in place since the Reformation, making it about 500 years old.

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:40 pm

Monsters and madness and men, oh my! The Terror is the unsung treasure of peak television

With a world-class cast that will have you constantly saying ‘hey, it’s that guy!’, this horror drama about a doomed Royal Navy expedition is a grand treatise on colonial folly

There’s an old adage that adventure is extreme discomfort remembered from an armchair. But what if there is no armchair waiting at the end of your journey? What if you never return at all? Well, then you have the first season of AMC anthology series The Terror. Based on the bestselling book of the same name by Dan Simmons, who died last month, it chronicles a doomed Royal Navy expedition dispatched to the Arctic in search of the fabled Northwest Passage.

Under the leadership of Captains Sir John Franklin and Francis Crozier, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, manned with 129 crew, set sail from England in 1845. They became locked in pack ice off King William Island in the winter of 1846. After that, the entire expedition vanished – both ships and all hands lost – a sort of Victorian-era MH370 that has fascinated historians, geographers and artists ever since.

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:00 pm

Trump has cornered himself with his war in Iran | Sidney Blumenthal

The president needs a quick win to avoid a quagmire – but he needs a long war to justify potential emergency powers

Donald Trump has trapped himself in his war with Iran by announcing that his intention is regime change. That uncertain objective is linked to his most urgent objective at home. While pursuing regime change in Iran, he is desperately attempting to stop regime change through the midterm elections. He needs a swift victory in Iran to avoid a quagmire, but he needs a long war to attempt the assertion of unconstitutional emergency authority over the electoral process.

Plunging into war followed Trump’s signature style: he negotiated in bad faith, turned to bombing when the sides were making “significant progress”, according to Oman’s foreign minister, was heedless of international law, and shut out congressional consultation. He offered as his imperative Iranian “imminent threats”, which the Pentagon briefed congressional staffers after Operation Epic Fury began was simply without basis in fact. There was no intelligence suggesting an “imminent threat”. Where’s the WMD?

Published: March 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

What is Trump’s endgame with Iran? | Robert Reich

This is a war without a plan, without a strategy, and without any clear understanding of where it leads or how it ends

I’ve spent the last several days checking with foreign policy experts, analysts and specialists in the Middle East for their understanding of Donald Trump’s real goal in Iran, and how anyone (including him) will know he’s achieved it.

Several told me that Trump is seeking the kind of “war” that the US executed in Venezuela – an abduction of a leader by special forces or, as in June, surgical airstrikes on locations where Iran appeared to be building nuclear bombs.

Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and on 15 March in the UK

Published: March 3, 2026, 11:00 am

Women everywhere are extolling the single life – not least, Pamela Anderson | Polly Hudson

After five marriages and countless magazine covers, the former Baywatch star makes being makeup-free and unattached look the best of all worlds

Pamela Anderson has been married five times. She has made the kind of romantic decisions – impulsive, reckless, incorrigible – that suggest someone who struggles to be alone. She had known her first husband only a few days; her second marriage lasted four months; she described her most recent, in 2020, as “a disaster”. Now, at 58, she is finally single.

“There’s that great Osho quote – ‘The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love.’ That’s where I’m at right now,” she told AnOther magazine. “I just want to unleash the dragon. I don’t need anybody in my way. I want to get it out. It happens at different times in everybody’s life, and this is my time.”

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 3, 2026, 2:31 pm

Ben Jennings on Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and the war in Iran – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:44 pm

I listened to 170 hours of Joe Rogan’s podcast – trust me, he hasn’t turned against Trump | Michael Marshall

The world’s most popular podcaster seemingly disapproving of ICE does not mean he has soured from the administration

Joe Rogan, the world’s most popular podcaster, is struggling to sleep. In an interview last week, he complained that the “madness” of the news cycle – from the release of the Epstein library, to US military strikes on Iran – has him “overwhelmed”. For some, this admission is just the latest sign that the world’s most popular podcaster might be regretting his role in cheerleading Donald Trump back into office.

It follows seemingly scathing criticism of ICE after the killing of Renee Nicole Good. Rogan compared ICE to the Gestapo in a short clip that quickly went viral. It led this newspaper to reasonably ask “Has Joe Rogan fully soured on Trump’s presidency?”, with ABC, Bloomberg and CNN all recently reporting on Rogan’s apparent disapproval of ICE.

Published: March 3, 2026, 12:00 pm

NFL offseason storylines: Pro Bowler trades, the draft and some big quarterback moves

After the league gathered for the combine, we look at the plots that will dominate the news cycle in the coming weeks and months

Barring a gas mask situation, we know who will be the No 1 overall pick in the draft. The Raiders need a viable long-term solution at quarterback after Geno Smith flamed out last year. Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner and national champion, is the top quarterback on the board and will be the first named called on 23 April. After Mendoza, the real intrigue begins.

Published: March 3, 2026, 10:00 am

Wolves v Liverpool, Leeds v Sunderland, and more: Premier League – live

⚽ Premier League updates, kicking off from 7.30pm GMT
⚽ Live scores | Tables | Today’s Football Daily | Email Niall

It’s finished Ukraine 1-6 England in the Lionesses’ opening World Cup qualifier.

There’s another late midweek kick-off for Everton fans to navigate tonight. Andy Hunter reports on teething problems at their new home …

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:52 pm

Braves’ Profar to land 162-game ban and forfeit $15m after reportedly failing PED test

• Designated hitter was also banned last season

• Player set to miss postseason and WBC too

Atlanta Braves designated hitter Jurickson Profar faces a 162-game suspension after a second positive test for performance-enhancing drugs, ESPN reported on Tuesday.

If the punishment is confirmed, the 33-year-old will also forfeit his entire $15m salary for the 2026 season and will be ineligible for the postseason and for this month’s World Baseball Classic, where he was due to play for the Netherlands.

Published: March 3, 2026, 6:08 pm

Trae Young gets ejected before even making his Washington Wizards debut

• Point guard argues with official during team’s loss

• Four-time All-Star arrived in January trade

Trae Young has managed to earn an ejection before even stepping on the court for his new team.

The four-time NBA All-Star guard, who was acquired by the Washington Wizards from the Atlanta Hawks in early January, is not set to make his debut for the Wizards on Thursday night against the Utah Jazz. However, he still found a way to be ejected for leaving the bench area in Washington’s 123-118 loss at home to the Houston Rockets.

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:03 pm

Inside Cadillac’s F1 journey: ‘Our Silverstone shakedown was a miracle’

Formula One’s newest team join the grid having designed a car from scratch in only 12 months with the aim of becoming a championship-winning force

When the new Formula One season begins on Sunday in the usual fever of excitement and anticipation, consider amid the maelstrom the Cadillac team. Before the lights go out in Melbourne, F1’s newest entrant will have a deserved chance to take a breath and savour for but a moment, their remarkable achievement of simply having made it to the grid.

The US team backed by General Motors has been built, aside from those involved in the pre‑planning, from scratch in what will be a year and a day since its entry was formally approved. As their team principal, Graeme Lowdon, explained, that process had begun in an empty room with a screwdriver and an A4 sheet of paper.

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:46 pm

A potential strike and a season at risk: why the WNBA’s labor battle is nearing its 11th hour

The league and its players, locked in a contentious 17-month standoff, must agree to new CBA terms by 10 March or threaten not starting the season on time

It’s not dramatic to say the labor negotiations between the WNBA and its players feel like an old-timey western standoff. The opposing sides have been holding in a quick-draw stance over a new collective bargaining agreement for the past 17 months, passing proposals back and forth that contain what each side envisions for the future of the league. But with less than 70 days until the 30th WNBA season is supposed to tip off, there’s still no resolution.

The two sides blew past the original deadline of 31 October 2025 and the 9 January extension, entering a “status quo” period. The league said that if a term sheet hasn’t been agreed to by 10 March, the 2026 season is at risk of not meeting its planned 8 May start.

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

Jon Rahm accuses DP World Tour of ‘extorting players’ by issuing LIV fines

• ‘I don’t know what game they’re trying to play,’ says Rahm

• Spaniard’s stance has put Ryder Cup place in peril

Jon Rahm’s dispute with the DP World Tour has escalated after the Spaniard accused the organisation of “extorting” golfers over fines for competing on the LIV circuit. Rahm’s Ryder Cup future remains in peril with no resolution to the matter in sight, with insiders at the DP World Tour and Europe’s Ryder Cup fans baffled by his stance.

Rahm incurred fines and suspensions as a DP World (formerly European) Tour member playing on what are regarded as competing Saudi‑backed LIV events. Rahm signed for LIV in 2023 in a deal reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Published: March 3, 2026, 3:06 pm

Calls for lifetime ban on Czech coach who filmed female footballers in changing room

• Petr Vlachovsky given a suspended prison sentence

• He has not been banned from coaching abroad

The Czech player union has called for a lifetime football ban for a coach who avoided jail despite being convicted of secretly filming his female players in the changing rooms and showers with a hidden camera.

Petr Vlachovsky was convicted in May 2025, without a public hearing, and handed a suspended one-year prison sentence and a five-year domestic coaching ban, after being found to have filmed 14 players at FC Slovacko over a four-year period. He was also caught in possession of child sexual abuse material.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:01 pm

David Squires on … Gianni Infantino’s accomplishments in 10 years as Fifa supremo

Our cartoonist on a decade of magic moments in the big job for world football’s leading ‘man of the people’

• Buy a cartoon | David’s favourite work of 2025

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Published: March 3, 2026, 11:19 am

South Sudan risks return to full-blown civil war as violence escalates

At least 169 killed in raid near Sudan border as clashes between government and opposition forces intensify

South Sudan is reeling from an escalating conflict between the government-aligned army and opposition forces and allied groups that observers say risks returning the country to a full-blown civil war.

Violent confrontations in the world’s youngest country between the military, which is loyal to President Salva Kiir, and insurgents believed to be allied to the suspended vice-president, Riek Machar, have increased in recent weeks.

Published: March 3, 2026, 3:49 pm

Police misconduct cost New York City taxpayers more than $117m in 2025

More than 1,000 lawsuits were resolved last year, including multimillion-dollar payouts tied to overturned convictions

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Misconduct by the New York police department (NYPD) cost the city’s taxpayers more than $117m in 2025, a study of lawsuits resolved last year has found.

The figure, in an analysis by the Legal Aid Society reported by the Gothamist, is the third highest yearly total since 2018. But it is lower than the 2024 settlement amount, which topped $200m.

Published: March 3, 2026, 6:31 pm

‘Now they only deport’: Afghans trapped in Pakistan arrested and sent back after ‘open war’ breaks out

Journalists and activists who fled Taliban rule are living in fear as Pakistani police hunt and deport refugees after escalating cross-border clashes

At midnight on Saturday, Alma* stood at the check-in counter at Karachi airport in Pakistan with her husband and three-year-old son, holding tickets she believed would finally take the refugee family to safety.

The Afghan journalist, who fled the Taliban in October 2024, had already been stopped from boarding two days earlier, on 26 February. Since they were flying with a tourist visa to a country in Africa, they had booked a flight from Karachi with a return leg that they did not plan to use. But the Pakistani officials at the airport refused to let them board.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Italian ambulance driver investigated on suspicion of murdering five patients

Prosecutors in the northern city of Forlì are investigating a 27-year-old man, currently suspended from the Italian Red Cross

Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Forlì are investigating an ambulance driver on suspicion of murdering five elderly patients.

All the suspicious deaths occurred while or soon after the patients were transported in an ambulance driven by the 27-year-old man, lawyers of the victims told the Guardian.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:40 pm

Benedetto Santapaola, notorious Italian mafia boss, dies in prison aged 87

Cosa Nostra leader, who controlled most of eastern Sicily, dies while serving multiple life sentences for murder

Benedetto “Nitto” Santapaola, a Sicilian mafia boss and one of the most dangerous figures in Italian criminal history, has died aged 87.

Santapaola, who was widely believed to have been the architect of a campaign of bloodshed that scarred Italy in the 1980s and 1990s, died on Monday in a Milan prison where he was serving multiple life sentences. An autopsy has been ordered.

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:03 pm

Global economy must stop pandering to ‘frivolous desires of ultra-rich’, says UN expert

Olivier De Schutter says new economic agenda needed to tackle crises of rising inequality and ecological collapse

The global economy must be reordered to ensure it serves ordinary people around the world rather than the “frivolous and destructive demands of the ultra-rich”, according to a leading UN figure.

Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, says politicians must stop prioritising “socially and ecologically destructive growth” that only increases the profits – and serves the consumption demands – of the world’s richest individuals and corporations.

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:11 pm

Ferries emit ‘more sulphur pollution than cars’ in several EU capitals

Dublin, Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn among port cities more choked by sulphur oxides from ferries, analysis shows

Fume-belching ferries spew more sulphur pollution than cars in several EU capitals, analysis has found.

Dublin, Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn are among 13 of Europe’s 15 biggest port cities choked more by sulphur oxides (SOx) from ferries than road vehicles, data shared exclusively with the Guardian shows.

Published: March 2, 2026, 11:01 pm

‘I love midges because I know what their hearts look like’: is the passion for taxonomy in danger of dying out?

Insect taxonomist Art Borkent has described and named more than 300 species of midges but fears his field of science is dying out, despite millions of insects, fungi and other organisms waiting to be discovered

Once Art Borkent starts speaking about biting midges, he rarely pauses for breath. Holding up a picture of a gnat trapped in amber from the time of the dinosaurs, the 72-year-old taxonomist explains that there are more than 6,000 ceratopogonidae species known to science. He has described and named more than 300 midges, mostly from his favourite family of flies. Some specialise in sucking blood from mammals, reptiles, other insects and even fish, often using the CO₂ from their host’s breath to locate their target, he says. Tens of thousands remain a mystery to science, waiting to be discovered.

But to Borkent’s knowledge, nobody will continue his life’s work of identifying and studying this group of flies once he has gone.

Published: March 2, 2026, 8:00 am

OpenAI amends Pentagon deal as Sam Altman admits it looks ‘sloppy’

ChatGPT owner’s CEO says it will bar its technology being used for mass surveillance or by intelligence services

• Business live – latest updates

OpenAI is amending its hastily arranged deal to supply artificial intelligence to the US Department of War (DoW) after the ChatGPT owner’s chief executive admitted it looked “opportunistic and sloppy”.

The contract prompted fears the San Francisco startup’s AI could be used for domestic mass surveillance but its boss, Sam Altman, said on Monday night the startup would explicitly bar its technology from being used for that purpose or being deployed by defence department intelligence agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA).

Published: March 3, 2026, 11:35 am

US House committee releases videos of the Clintons’ Epstein testimonies

Bill and Hillary Clinton last week faced hours of questioning from lawmakers about the convicted sex offender

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Videos of Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Hillary Clinton, the former US secretary of state, answering questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released on Monday by a House committee investigating the late financier.

The recordings of the depositions, which spanned hours over two days last week, show how both Clintons distanced themselves from Epstein. Bill Clinton told the committee that he had ended his relationship with Epstein years before the financier entered a guilty plea in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

Published: March 2, 2026, 9:38 pm

US supreme court blocks California privacy protections for trans students

State laws had limited sharing of information with parents about gender identity of trans students in public schools

The US supreme court has decided to block a series of California laws that can limit the sharing of information with parents about the gender identity of transgender students in public ​schools. This ruling marks a victory for parents who challenged these protections on religious and due process grounds.

The emergency request was granted on Monday and the decision was made along party lines, with the three liberal justices dissenting.

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:29 am

Ron DeSantis spent $1.2m per day to open and operate ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

After spending taxpayers’ money, Florida governor will likely be left holding bill for $608m promised by Trump administration

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Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, spent $1.2m of taxpayers’ money per day to open and operate the notorious immigration jail known as Alligator Alcatraz, court records obtained by the independent investigative news website the Florida Tributary reveal.

A switch in position by Donald Trump’s administration also now looks likely to leave Florida on the hook for at least $608m spent on the harsh Everglades detention and deportation facility and other immigration jails, the outlet said. That was despite gloating by DeSantis in September that the state would be reimbursed from federal funds.

Published: March 2, 2026, 10:10 pm

Lucy Letby case expert witness was under fitness-to-practise investigation during trial

Exclusive: Jury was never told about inquiry into key prosecution witness Peter Hindmarsh, which looked into allegations including of harm to patients

A doctor who gave crucial expert evidence about insulin poisoning for the prosecution of the nurse Lucy Letby was under investigation by the medical regulator at the time due to serious concerns about his fitness to practise.

The General Medical Council (GMC) opened an investigation into concerns about Prof Peter Hindmarsh, including that he had harmed patients, on the first day he gave evidence at Letby’s trial in late 2022.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:30 am

Historic harvests and sky-high prices – so why can’t Colombia’s coffee-growers hire pickers?

Though coffee is one of the world’s most important commodities, little of the profit trickles down to the farmers, while workers are abandoning the countryside in search of more lucrative jobs in the city

Mary Luz Pérez Arrubla and her brother, Rodrigo, are fourth-generation farmers cultivating coffee on steep Andean slopes near the town of Líbano, in the rich agricultural region of Tolima. Along with the rest of Colombia, the family has enjoyed a historic harvest amid surging global coffee prices, which hit record highs for the second year in a row in 2025.

Severe US tariffs imposed on Brazil and Vietnam, – the world’s two largest coffee producers – as well as poor harvests there, helped drive the surge. Both countries were hurt by the El Niño phenomenon, a cyclical weather pattern characterised by dry spells and aggravated by the climate crisis.

Published: March 3, 2026, 11:00 am

Baftas host Alan Cumming criticises BBC for ‘broadcasting slurs and censoring free speech’

‘What should have been an evening celebrating diversity and inclusion turned into a trauma-triggering shitshow,’ says host after racial epithet was left in the broadcast

Alan Cumming has joined the chorus of disapproval at the BBC’s failure to edit out a racial slur from their Baftas telecast, saying it turned “what should have been an evening celebrating diversity and inclusion into a trauma-triggering shitshow”.

Before the live event, Cumming warned the audience that disturbances might occur on account of the involuntary tics of Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson, whose life was the basis for multi-award-winning I Swear, and asked for their understanding.

Published: March 3, 2026, 12:37 pm

Nepal’s gen-Z election: can popular former rapper Balen topple a veteran political heavyweight?

With 46% of Nepal’s population under the age of 24, the election will be a test of whether their hopes and frustrations are being taken seriously

In the unassuming, dusty lanes of the Nepali city of Damak, an unprecedented political showdown is unfolding. Pitting an old political heavyweight against a rapper-turned-politician with a penchant for dark sunglasses and sharp suits, the battle is one that could completely reshape the country’s politics.

As Nepal heads into its most gripping election in years, at the forefront stands Balendra Shah, the 35-year-old known simply as Balen. He rose to fame as a popular rapper whose songs criticised the ruling elite, before pivoting to politics and winning a resounding victory to become the mayor of Kathmandu in May 2022.

Published: March 3, 2026, 6:48 am

Game of Thrones film adaptation in the works at Warner Bros

Blockbuster adaptation of George RR Martin’s fantasy world will focus on events 300 years before the HBO series’ pilot

A Game of Thrones film is set for the big screen, with Warner Bros officially developing a prequel set in the world of Westeros.

House of Cards showrunner and Andor writer Beau Willimon has been recruited to write the script based on George RR Martin’s fantasy series.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:45 pm

Jon Stewart on US attacks in Iran: ‘A war with no clear purpose, no end in sight’

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s lack of justification for the US and Israeli military strikes on Iran

Late-night hosts delved into the new US regime-change war in the Middle East, after Donald Trump directed the US military to bomb Iran in conjunction with Israel.

Published: March 3, 2026, 4:00 pm

‘What’s under my saucepans? Rage!’ Claire Foy, Andrew Garfield and cast on the set of The Magic Faraway Tree

The trippy film of Enid Blyton’s much loved novels has been 20 years in the making. We catch up with its adult and child stars – inside a giant cake as disco-dancing elves rollerskate past

Anyone who read Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree novels as a child has imagined themselves roving through their magical landscapes. Most of us had a favourite, be it the Land of Wizards, or Nursery Rhymes, or Do-As-You-Please. Thirteen-year-old Billie Gadsdon, about to star in the highly anticipated film adaptation, The Magic Faraway Tree, particularly loves the Land of Goodies – but that’s because when she was last there, everything around her was made of sweets.

Director Ben Gregor wanted his cast to interact with the fantastical surroundings as much as possible. And so, on their sound stage in Reading, Gadsdon found herself filming in a grove of marshmallow trees, surrounded by giant flying-saucer plants and Haribo strawberry beds. “I did eat a few,” she confides. The Land of Birthdays was just as fun – she was filmed in those scenes in the middle of a giant cake, as rollerskating elves disco-danced by.

Published: March 3, 2026, 5:00 am

Why Frankenstein should win the best picture Oscar

Guillermo del Toro has overcome the Academy’s aversion to fantasy before and with this heartfelt telling of the monster classic he should do it again

Guillermo del Toro has spent his career humanising monsters, once calling them the “patron saints of our blissful imperfection”, so his adaptation of Frankenstein was always going to be a match made in heaven. The Mexican film-maker’s passion project turns Mary Shelley’s famous novel about the dangers of hubris and playing God into a touching tale about generational trauma, parental abandonment and the healing power of forgiveness. It’s a meticulously crafted, visually sumptuous and powerfully told story that deserves to take home that best picture Oscar.

But it’s not going to be easy. The gothic fantasy seamlessly blends horror, sci-fi and melodrama in its opulent retelling; here Oscar Isaac plays the eccentric scientist, Victor, who brings a hulking creature (Jacob Elordi) made up of dead body parts to life. Fantasy, horror and sci-fi, however, are genres that notoriously don’t do well at the Academy Awards, apart from in the technical categories. Yes, Del Toro is one of the few film-makers to get a best picture Oscar for a fantasy/sci-fi film in 2018 for his amphibian love story, The Shape of Water, but that win was an exception, not the rule.

Published: March 3, 2026, 8:00 am

Worldbreaker review – a big bear hug from Luke Evans in father-daughter sci-fi survival drama

A father trains his teenager to fight monsters, while mum, Milla Jovovich, is away leading the human resistance

Perhaps this is just coincidence, but it feels like a lot of action movies these days revolve around grown men and their daughters or daughter surrogates struggling to survive. Although rugged and ready to kill, the men involved are also “girl dads”, protectors and nurturers who train their female offspring to fight as hard as any man in order to survive a world they may not be in themselves someday. Obviously there’s The Last of Us and Stranger Things, but also recent Jason Statham vehicle Shelter, the upcoming feature One Mile: Chapter One, and now Worldbreaker, which is bang on trend.

With its sci-fi frame in which monsters called breakers have emerged from the poisoned earth and can turn humans into a second kind of monster (called hybrids), this feels a lot closer to The Last of Us, but with its own weird extra bangs and whizzes. For a start, Milla Jovovich is in it, in a distinctly supporting role as the female general of the human resistance and leader of what’s become a quasi-matriarchal society (because people with Y chromosomes are more likely to be infected). While Jovovich hasn’t got the best range as an actor, the one thing she’s good at, as proved in all those Resident Evil movies, is fighting monsters.

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

From David Bowie to Fleetwood Mac and Eric Clapton, Mike Vernon’s ear was invaluable to British pop and blues

The musician, producer and label head, who has died aged 81, turned his boyhood passion for blues into a hugely impactful career

Mike Vernon, who has died aged 81, was the ultimate schoolboy blues nut. First he published a blues fanzine, next he persuaded Decca Records to hire him to produce British blues bands, then he started his own indie label issuing 45s of African American blues artists, before CBS agreed to finance his Blue Horizon label. From the 1970s on, he would record and perform as a solo artist and band member; he was a producer for David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton and more. His was a life determined by his love for music, and he served his muse generously for more than 60 years.

Vernon’s upbringing in Surrey was typical of many children born in the mid-1940s: he sang in his church choir, listened to the jazz and show tune LPs his parents owned and was bowled over by the arrival of rock’n’roll, responding most strongly to the likes of Little Richard, Fats Domino and Larry Williams. Inquisitive and determined, he sought out records by older African American blues and R&B artists then, while studying at Croydon Art College, started following the fledgling British blues bands led by Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner.

Published: March 3, 2026, 2:45 pm

‘Like turning your soul inside out’: Barbara Hannigan and Laura Bowler on their devastating composition The White Book

These breathtaking songs of loss left the soprano and the composer feeling shellshocked after the world premiere in Gothenburg. We meet them backstage as they prepare for the British debut

It’s the morning after the night before when I meet Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan and British composer and vocalist Laura Bowler. We’re in Gothenburg, backstage at the Swedish city’s sleek Konserthus. The previous evening, Hannigan sang the world premiere of Bowler’s new work, The White Book, with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Neither has slept well. Hannigan stayed up eating cheese brought from home in France and talking with her assistant conductor. Bowler was “so wired” she was awake until 2am.

Both seem shellshocked. They are also keen to compare notes, which is why portions of our conversation feel less like an interview and more like an adrenaline-fuelled debrief. And not just a debrief, either. In high-energy asides, they discuss the importance of travelling with your own tea (Yorkshire for Hannigan, Clipper for Bowler), where to buy the best buns in Gothenburg (Eva’s Paley, Hannigan advises), volcanoes (Bowler is obsessed) and what “big conductors” earn – too much, reckons Hannigan. They should be paying their assistants to attend rehearsals from their own fees, like she does. “Tithe! Tithe!” she concludes with a flourish.

Published: March 3, 2026, 4:52 pm

The Last Kings of Hollywood by Paul Fischer review – the rise and reign of Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola

An epic account of how three demigod directors, in pursuit of indie freedom, redefined American film-making

Here we are once more: back to the glory days of the New Hollywood that emerged from the ashes of the old studio system in the 1960s and 70s. Our cast is filled with brilliant hotshots and creative risk-takers, energised by the French New Wave, the American counterculture and the industry’s own amazing entrepreneurial past.

Peter Biskind’s breezy, bleary, cynical book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls ranged freely across the 1970s, with controversial anecdotes about egos and drugs (though maybe the definitive book about the role of cocaine in film production has yet to be written). Mark Harris’s Scenes from a Revolution had the witty idea of looking at the five films Oscar-nominated for best picture in the transitional year of 1968, from the supercool Bonnie and Clyde to the squaresville Dr Doolittle, to see what they told us about America’s cinematic mind at the time.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:00 am

They by Helle Helle review – a novel to make the reader slow down and take notice

Minimalist but never austere, this mother-daughter portrait from the Danish author finds its power in everyday detail

The Danish author Helle Helle’s They, published in the UK in a pin-sharp translation by Martin Aitken, charts the subtle and shifting bond between a teenage daughter and an ailing mother in prose that is minimalist but never austere. It’s one of those novels where little is spoken but everything, by the end, gets said.

The unnamed mother and 16-year-old daughter live above a hairdresser’s in a Danish backwater on the island of Lolland, where nothing much goes on. They walk across the spring-awoken fields, they shop for groceries, they join an evening class. Details of their past are scanty, fugitive: a few house moves, but nothing about the daughter’s father, who exerts a vague apophatic presence. Mostly, they enjoy a frictionless, symbiotic closeness: “They sit by the window a lot, and on the settee, and with the free local weekly … They lift their mugs, sip synchronous mouthfuls.”

Published: March 3, 2026, 9:00 am

Becoming George by Fiona Sampson review – the remarkable story of a cross-dressing 19th century novelist

A reappraisal of one of literature’s most sensational personalities, the author of more than 70 books

If we really are in a reading crisis – whether you blame TikTok or podcasts – it stands to reason that, of all the genres, literary biography might have particular cause to fear for its life: who wants the life story of somebody whose books no one reads?

Such anxiety, justified or not, can be heard jangling away in the background amid some of the noisier claims made by Fiona Sampson at the start of her new biography of the pseudonymous 19th-century author George Sand, “one of the most famous writers in the world, at a time when books had something of the glamour that would later surround, say, Hollywood movies”. Best known for the 1832 novel Indiana, whose eponymous young heroine walks out on a loveless age-gap marriage, Sand’s life “reveals … the nature of all lives as self-invention”, not least because she scandalously wore trousers: “by suiting up as a garçon she was, criss-cross, acknowledging that to be a writing woman is a little off-centre: is queer,” writes Sampson, calling Sand “one of the boldest precursors of that perhaps final hope modernity holds out: that we might choose what we become”.

Published: March 2, 2026, 9:00 am

The Daffodil Days by Helen Bain review – virtuoso portrait of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’s final year

Portraying the breakdown of the couple’s marriage through the eyes of the people around them, this deeply researched and utterly convincing debut is an astonishing achievement

Set in the early 1960s, The Daffodil Days tells the story of a couple who move from London to the countryside, have a second child and attempt to settle there, but then, their marriage in tatters, move away again. Instead of describing the couple directly we glimpse them through the eyes of the people around them, from the village doctor, their charlady and various neighbours, to friends, colleagues and visitors, offering the reader vignettes drawn from varying distances and perspectives. Although it is not mentioned in the book’s jacket copy, the couple in question are Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes; eight weeks after the period described in the novel, Plath, having returned to London, would take her own life.

During their time in Devon, from 1961–2, Plath completed The Bell Jar, gave birth to a son, Nicholas, at home, and wrote the poems that would be posthumously published as Ariel; Hughes began his affair with Assia Wevill, which Plath quickly discovered. Given that the couple’s lives provide the source material for an entire cottage industry, you would be forgiven for thinking that there was little left to say about their time in Devon that has not already been said; but by coming at its subject from the viewpoints of others, this virtuoso, deeply researched and utterly convincing debut achieves something quite extraordinary. At points, the experience of reading it feels very close to time travel: Yes, you think, as you watch Plath sitting with her daughter Frieda on her lap in the garden, or having her thumb stitched up by the local GP, or glimpse her getting up to write at 4am: that is just how it must have been.

Published: March 2, 2026, 7:00 am

Five of the most interesting upcoming indie games

From the ghostly Shutter Story to road trip adventure Outbound and strategy puzzler Titanium Court, here are the titles we enjoyed the most from this year’s Steam Next Fest showcase

These days, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that every new indie game is either a co-op extraction shooter or a roguelike deck-builder – fortunately that’s not quite the case. Each February, the week-long Steam Next Fest is a vast and varied showcase of forthcoming titles, all with downloadable demos, and only a minority of them adhere to those dominant genres. It’s a lovely chance to dig into the sometimes bewildering Steam store and pick out interesting treats – and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Here are five of my favourites.

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

Stardew Valley at 10: the anticapitalist game that cures burnout and inspires queer art

Since 2016, the cosy, inclusive, non-heteronormative escapism of the beloved farming sim has inspired a community of devoted fans, and helped it shift 50m units

When farming sim Stardew Valley first came out back in 2016, most of us saw it as a modest indie hit, offering charm, wit and a beautiful little world. Ten years later, this tiny indie has sold nearly 50m copies. If you haven’t played it yourself, you’ve probably seen someone playing it on the train (or, in the case of one of my musical theatre castmates, in the dressing room between scenes). As we discussed on the Tech Weekly podcast shortly after its launch, this calming game about tending crops and animals and relationships with neighbours rejuvenated the entire farming/life sim genre. To this day, I still get press releases promising that some upcoming cosy game or another is the next Stardew Valley.

While developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone now has a small team to help with periodic updates, the original game – his first – was all his own work, from the distinctive pixel art and animations to the soundtrack that has since toured the world in concert. Unable to get a job after university, he’d started his own project inspired by the Harvest Moon series (now called Story of Seasons). One notable addition was the inclusion of queer romance options. The ability to pursue a romantic relationship with other townsfolk is a key part of the game’s popularity – as demonstrated by the thousands who tuned in to a video from Barone revealing the identities of two new marriage candidates – and the fact that all potential spouses are available to the player character regardless of gender has helped the game garner a dedicated queer fanbase.

Published: March 2, 2026, 1:36 pm

‘Cultural monstrosities!’ The thrilling visual legacy of punk and post-punk – in pictures

From bold anti-Nazi posters to an acid-drenched take on Jean Cocteau, a new exhibition, curated by writer Philip Hoare, shows how influential the DIY designs of the 70s and 80s became

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:00 am

‘My guitar was mangled – like my life!’ Goo Goo Dolls on how they made epic ballad Iris

‘I’m grateful to Taylor Swift, and others who have covered it, for introducing the song to a new generation. Three billion streams on Spotify is astonishing!’

I was going through a divorce and living in a hotel in West Hollywood when my manager said Warner Brothers were seeking songs for the movie City of Angels. They already had U2, Peter Gabriel and Alanis Morissette, so I thought getting a track on there would draw attention to us. Warners showed me the film and it was like Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire. They wanted a song for the scene where the angel – played by Nicolas Cage – decides to become human to be with the woman he loves. That’s the Meg Ryan role. I thought: “What would I say to her if I were him?”

Published: March 2, 2026, 2:44 pm

From bustling Venice Beach to gas station shrines: Alex Frayne’s photographic exploration of America

Presented as part of the Adelaide festival 2026 program, South Australian artist Alex Frayne explores the fractured psyche of modern America through photography. Shot almost entirely on analogue film over three years and across nine states, Frayne’s lens focuses on the fringes of the west, deep south and Bible belt

• Manifest Destiny runs 28 February to 15 March at ILA (Immersive Light and Art)

Published: March 2, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘Do what you really want to do while you’re still alive’: Masayoshi Takanaka, the Japanese guitar hero surfing a second wave in his 70s

Playing a surfboard-shaped axe, Takanaka was a stadium-level artist at home but little known in the west – until YouTube brought him a huge new audience

In November 2025, Masayoshi Takanaka announced his first ever UK solo gig. Originally slated for London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, there was such demand that it was upgraded to two nights at Brixton Academy – nearly 10,000 people will flock to see a 72-year-old Japanese jazz fusion virtuoso play a surfboard-shaped guitar in March. Come the summer, he’ll headline an outdoor festival in London’s Crystal Palace park. “I was actually planning to fade out [my career],” he says on a video call. “But now I feel like this might be my second coming. My life has changed so much in the last few years.”

Born in Tokyo in 1953, Takanaka picked up the guitar in middle school, taking inspiration from western artists such as Cream, the Beatles and Ten Years After. He hung out in Shibuya jazz clubs while still in school uniform, asking bands if he could jam with them, and by 1972 he was playing with Sadistic Mika Band, who became the first Japanese rock band to tour the UK when they were invited to support Roxy Music in arenas. “They were already rock stars, so they had a limousine,” recalls Takanaka. “We were driving a Rover.”

Published: March 2, 2026, 11:50 am

Why do my potatoes go black after cooking? | Kitchen aide

A drop of lemon and being selective about your choice of cookware could zap any troubles with blackened spuds, as would a highly novel solution from the seaside

Why do some potatoes turn black on cooking, and how do I stop this happening? I usually leave them to cool in the cooking water, but should I plunge them in cold water instead?”
Jean, Hampshire
“We’ve all been there,” sympathises spud queen Poppy O’Toole. “It’s a harmless chemical reaction,” the author of The Potato Book continues, “but it looks rank and only gets worse with the slow cooling process that Jean’s using.” But let’s wind things back for a moment. According to the food science guru Harold McGee, in his bible On Food & Cooking, the darkening of cooked potatoes “is caused by the combination of iron ions, a phenolic substance [chlorogenic acid] and oxygen, which react to form a pigmented complex”. So what’s the solution? Make the pH of the water “distinctly acidic”, which McGee does by adding cream of tartar or lemon juice “after the potatoes are half-cooked”.

Another possible suspect for Jean’s blackening tubers is her cookware: “Reactive metals such as a carbon steel knife or aluminium pan may also be the cause of the issue,” says the Guardian’s Tom Hunt, which is why he recommends using a non-reactive metal (think stainless steel) instead. “Leaving the cooked potatoes in water is also a bad idea,” adds Jess Murphy, chef patron of Kai Galway in Ireland and author of The Kai Cookbook:“They are like little sponges.” Hunt couldn’t agree more: “The potatoes will absorb the water and turn soggy and less fluffy – and never refresh them under cold water or in a cold plunge, either, unless it’s momentary.”

Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:00 pm

Want a better job and a pay rise? Eleven ways to progress at work – and avoid a ‘dry promotion’

Keep your boss happy, develop your ‘personal boardroom’, ask for honest feedback, don’t take the notes in every meeting and remember: no one gets promoted for inbox zero

There is nothing worse than feeling stuck in a job. What are the best ways to progress without having to resort to shameless self-promotion? Here, career coaches explain how to make sure you are first in line for a promotion – and a pay rise.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Less waste and fewer dishes: these glass food containers changed how I store leftovers

Don’t let leftovers languish in the fridge. These oven, microwave and freezer-safe glass containers from Anyday will help you waste less food – and cut back on dirty dishes

• The seven best non-toxic cooking pans in the US

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When I cook for my family, I always pack up leftover food with the best of intentions, and remnants of a weeknight meal generally get eaten within a day or two. Large spreads, however, are a different story.

In the past, I would stuff what was left from a large dinner or party into the biggest air-tight containers they required, then cram them all into my fridge, full-well believing my kids and I would live off of those leftovers for the better part of a week.

The best glass food storage containers: Anyday 2-Cup Glass Round Dish Multipack

Published: March 2, 2026, 2:54 pm

Dior turns up springtime-in-Paris for Anderson’s second womenswear show

Northern Irish designer ditches darker undercurrents for seductive vision of Monet’s waterlilies at opening show of Paris fashion week

In a dark news cycle, joy sells. With his second major womenswear show for Dior, the Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson put a pin in the soul-searching of his first season and plunged gleefully for the springtime-in-Paris jugular. For the opening show of Paris fashion week, Dior offered a seductive vision of Monet’s waterlilies, walks in the Tuileries gardens, and the Eiffel Tower glittering in the sunshine.

Anderson, a keen art collector who moved to Paris for the Dior role last year, has been looking at Seurat’s romantic paintings of ordinary Parisians at leisure, as well as Monet. A promenade across the octagonal pond of the Tuileries was built as a catwalk, and the Sunday sailboats upgraded for the occasion into giant lily pads with vibrant blooms. Dollhouse-sized pairs of classic French green park chairs were sent out as whimsical invitations.

Published: March 3, 2026, 3:39 pm

‘You know when you’ve hit it – it’s a transformation’: Ruth E Carter on building the bold world of Sinners

The two-time Oscar winner on dressing Michael B Jordan’s twin antiheroes, her start with Spike Lee and crafting the period detail of Ryan Coogler’s genre-bending epic

Ruth E Carter’s costumes were a crucial part of establishing the identities of the two identical twins, both played by Michael B Jordan, in multi-Oscar-nominated Sinners. Particularly the hats. One brother, Stack, wore a red fedora. The other brother, Smoke, wore a blue newsboy flat cap. Finding the hats was a critical moment in the film’s backstory. When director Ryan Coogler first saw Jordan try on Stack’s red fedora, bought by Carter in Los Angeles’s Melrose Avenue, “he was like – that’s it. Then he goes up into the rest of the office, and people are coming down, like, ‘Ryan’s talking upstairs about a red hat?’ You know when you’ve hit it – it’s a transformation.”

This is just a small example of the canny period world-building that has made Carter the most-garlanded Black woman in Oscars history, and the owner of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (her family were in attendance, she says, of its Covid-era unveiling, while Oprah and Eddie Murphy dialled in via Zoom). Her work on Coogler’s genre-squashing, Jim Crow-era drama, which has gained a record-breaking 16 Oscar nods, has landed a fifth nomination for the two-time Oscar winner (she is, according to a poll by Variety, a favourite in the category). Among her starry upcoming projects: a biopic of the pioneering Black fashion designer, Ann Lowe – designer of Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress – which she will produce alongside Serena Williams.

Published: March 2, 2026, 9:00 am

There’s a lot to hate about AI. But what if there was a mindful way to use it?

Our new free course AI for the People will show you practical ways to work with AI –without giving up judgment, privacy or your humanity

• Sign up for AI for the People, a six-week newsletter course, here

Published: March 2, 2026, 11:00 am

Want to go skiing in Switzerland without breaking the bank? Here’s where to go …

Hitting the piste in Verbier doesn’t come cheap, but in laid-back La Tzoumaz you can access the same pistes without such a steep price tag

I’m standing at 3,330 metres on a tall metal platform with a heavy harness strapped to my back, gazing in awe at the snow-covered Matterhorn, Mont Blanc and the Dents du Midi ridge. It’s a gorgeous distraction while I wait to be clipped in and launched down the valley at 120 kilometres an hour. This is the Mont Fort zip line, the highest in the world. I sit with my legs dangling over the precipice, then with a stomach-churning clunk the mechanism releases and I speed through the air over tiny figures skiing below. It’s exhilarating and over too soon. I’m grinning ear to ear, my lungs full of high mountain air.

I’m in Verbier, one of Switzerland’s most famous ski resorts. With access to 410km of pristine piste, excellent alpine food and a legendary après-ski culture, what’s not to like? Well, for many, the price. Verbier has long been favoured by A-listers and royalty, with eye-watering prices to match. Happily, there is a way to enjoy the same slopes, with much less of a financial hit. Stay in the village of La Tzoumaz (pronounced La Tsoo-mah), where accommodation can be half the price of Verbier, and you’re one chairlift away from the entire Four Valleys ski area. And as I discover, this “back door” resort has plenty of its own charms too.

Published: March 3, 2026, 7:00 am

Houseplant hacks: can neem oil really beat mealybugs?

This natural pesticide may work on a small infestation – it just requires elbow grease and repeat treatments

The problem
Mealybugs are the clingy exes of the pest world, wedging themselves into leaf joints, hiding in roots and coating everything in white fluff. Left untreated, they suck sap, stunt growth and spread quickly from plant to plant. Once you notice them, they’re usually everywhere.

The hack
Neem oil is a natural pesticide that coats soft-bodied pests and interferes with their ability to feed and reproduce. Used properly, it can eliminate mealybugs without the need for harsher chemicals.

Published: March 3, 2026, 10:00 am

The greenest flags: virtue signals that help you find love – from patchwork clothes to car sharing

A new survey shows 80% of gen Zs believe strong environmental values are as important as physical attraction when it comes to finding a partner (so you might want to start reusing your coffee cups)

Name: Green flags.

Age: This is a thing for younger people, so listen up, boomers.

Published: March 2, 2026, 4:50 pm

My sexual freedom odyssey: what ancient African wisdom can teach us about pleasure today

By speaking to women across the continent, I discovered how reclaiming pre-colonial rites and rituals can help us find joy in our bodies

In the kitchen of my Airbnb in Dar es Salaam I stripped down to my underwear and wrapped a colourful kanga cloth around my hips. It was day three of my dance lessons with Zaishanga, but I was showing no improvement. Zaishanga, or Auntie Zai as I called her, is a traditional sex educator, known locally as a somo or kungwi. She told me that learning to dance seductively would ensure that, “no man would ever want to leave you, unless you want him gone”. I never did master the dance, and I really don’t care much if a man chooses to leave me, but my time with Auntie Zai was enlightening.

Dance is just one of a range of seduction tips and tricks that Zaishanga teaches at her “kitchen parties”. She also counsels women on how to maintain a healthy marriage, and gives advice on the importance of self-care, and the need to maintain a standard of beauty and style. These gatherings, where experienced older women – aunties, big sisters, grandmothers – share advice with brides-to-be are rooted in traditional rites of passage into womanhood that date back centuries.

Published: March 3, 2026, 8:00 am

The war in the Middle East in maps, video and photos

How the US-Israeli war against Iran exploded into a regional conflict, as Tehran retaliated with strikes across the Middle East

• US-Israel war on Iran – live updates

A US-Israeli war against Iran that began on Saturday with bombing and missile attacks that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has exploded into a regional conflict, with Tehran retaliating by launching strikes across the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Israel’s military launched a ground invasion of Lebanon, where it has been carrying out intense strikes after Iran’s ally, Hezbollah, fired rockets across the frontier.

Published: March 3, 2026, 12:02 pm

The UK has arrested high-profile figures connected to Jeffrey Epstein. Will the US?

In contrast with the takedowns of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson, US consequences have been limited to resignations and apologies

Weeks after justice department officials released more than 3m investigative documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, there have not been any arrests in the US, prompting questions about whether any potential co-conspirators will be held accountable on American soil.

Indeed, consequences in the US for the sex trafficker’s associates have largely been limited to a handful of sombre resignations and public apologies of late – not high-level criminal prosecutions that victims and advocates have long demanded.

Published: March 2, 2026, 11:00 am

People in the US: share your views of the Iran conflict

Trump long promised to end ‘endless wars’, but the US has joined Israel in attacking Iran. We want to hear how people in the US are reacting

Hundreds of people thought to have died in Iran following the strikes by US and Israeli forces on Saturday with the numbers expected to rise. Six US service members have been killed since the conflict began on Saturday.

For the last decade Donald Trump has denounced US military intervention in other countries; back in December 2016 the then president elect said; “We will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn’t be involved with.”

Published: March 3, 2026, 4:09 pm

Mourning in the Middle East and Holi celebrations in India: Photos of the day – Tuesday

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

Published: March 3, 2026, 1:05 pm