One Battle After Another sweeps the Oscars as Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley win big

Paul Thomas Anderson’s revolutionary epic took home six awards while Sinners scored four including for best actor

• Oscar winners 2026: the full list

• In pictures: Jessie Buckley, Michael B Jordan and Jacob Elordi at the afterparties

Paul Thomas Anderson’s counter-culture caper One Battle After Another has won the Oscars war, taking home six awards after a hotly contested season.

The big-budget comedy thriller, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, was named best picture and also won director, supporting actor for Sean Penn, adapted screenplay, editing and the first ever Oscar for casting, a category long-petitioned for within the industry.

Published: March 16, 2026, 2:43 am

Marty not so supreme: where did it all go wrong for Timotheé Chalamet at this year’s Oscars?

Audiences were gradually turned off by the Marty Supreme actor during his Oscars campaign trail, with the growing sensation that he was more like his smirking, fame-hungry character than they first imagined
• Oscar winners 2026: the full list
• Key takeaways from Oscars 2026

Has any actor worked so hard with such little result as Timothée Chalamet this Oscars campaign? When everything is totted up, the tally will surely suggest so: thousands of air miles and tiny orange ping-pong balls expended, but no gold statuette, as both he and his film Marty Supreme were shut out entirely of this year’s Academy Awards.

For so long Chalamet’s grand tour looked a work of wide-eyed gonzo genius. It started with a “leaked” Zoom call comedy skit where the 30-year-old pitched increasingly absurd promotional ideas for his new film Marty Supreme – breakfast serial tie-ins! Blimps! Painting the Eiffel the same violent orange as the ping-pong balls in the film! – to an audience of nervously nodding marketing execs. The skit was preposterous, sure, but also a tiny bit predictive of the actual campaign. The Eiffel tower might not have been painted orange, but the blimp took off, and so did Chalamet. Broadcast across every medium, from Insta to old-fashioned network TV, appearing in just about every country, aimed at every audience – sports bros, thespians, fans of half-forgotten, foghorn-voiced talent show winners – he projected a confident ubiquity dialled down just a few notches from his character: brilliant, striving, a little insufferable.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:09 am

Sinners’ Oscar triumphs show that Black cinema is now a vital and valid part of Hollywood

Its wins are a testament to Ryan Coogler’s vision. His highly personal film foregrounds the Black experience and its essential humanity is a lesson for us all
• Oscar winners 2026: the full list
• Key takeaways: horror wins, tech loses and politics is hard to ignore

Congratulations to the Sinners camp on its Oscar night triumphs – affirmation that cinema can be deep and entertaining at the same time. It might not have swept the major awards as some of us had hoped, but it is still a personal victory for Ryan Coogler, and also the validation that Black cinema has long been denied. And despite handling heavy themes of racist violence, Sinners will probably be remembered by history as a message of hope and unity in a turbulent era.

Nobody could argue that Coogler’s film didn’t deserve its success. Sinners is a complete, unified, all-round work of art. Everything seems to be in tune: the story, the performances (not least Michael B Jordan’s technically demanding dual role – justly rewarded with the best actor Oscar), the music, the costumes , the production design, the visuals (a boundary-smashing award for Autumn Durald Arkapaw – the first woman and the first Black winner of the best cinematography Oscar). Sinners’ record 16 nominations and four wins were confirmation that the Academy agreed.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:24 am

Free Palestine and ICE out: how this year’s Oscars got political

As One Battle After Another swept the Academy Awards, Paul Thomas Anderson, Javier Bardem and Conan O’Brien gave a welcome reality check to the glitzy ceremony

• Oscar winners 2026: the full list

In his opening monologue to the 98th Academy Awards, host Conan O’Brien issued a note of caution to easily offended viewers.

“I warn you, tonight could get political,” O’Brien said. “If that makes you uncomfortable, there’s an alternative Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock at a Dave & Buster’s down the street.”

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:55 am

Oscars 2026 red carpet: Jessie Buckley, Chase Infiniti and more – in pictures

The best looks from the red carpet at the 98th Academy Awards in Los Angeles

• Oscars 2026 winners: the full list

• In pictures: Jessie Buckley, Michael B Jordan and Jacob Elordi at the afterparties

Published: March 15, 2026, 9:26 pm

Conan’s bits, O’Connell’s fangs and Jafar Panahi unimpressed: Oscars 2026 viral moments

In a year that largely stuck to script, host O’Brien’s antics and the It Was Just an Accident director’s stare at Kevin O’Leary got the internet talking

• Oscars 2026 winners: the full list

Jafar Panahi, the Iranian political dissident and director of the excellent film It Was Just an Accident – a best international feature nominee from France, as it was made without the permission of the Iranian government – looked, well, not impressed by Shark Tank judge and Marty Supreme castmember, Kevin O’Leary, on the red carpet. If there’s one moment that transcended the Oscars this year, it’s this dead stare.

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:12 am

Middle East crisis live: Trump threatens ‘very bad’ future for Nato if allies fail to help secure strait of Hormuz

Response muted to president’s call amid soaring oil prices

• How have you been affected by the latest Middle East events?

Continued from previous post:

Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has said she has no immediate plans to send her country’s maritime self-defence forces to help protect tanker traffic in the strait of Homuz.

We have not made any decisions whatsoever about dispatching escort ships. We are continuing to examine what Japan can do independently and what can be done ⁠within the legal framework.

I would like to ⁠engage in solid discussions based on Japan’s views and position regarding the need for early de-escalation.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:37 am

Cory Booker calls both parties ‘feckless’ for ceding war powers to Trump

Democrat says Congress ‘doing nothing’ may embolden president to attack countries such as Cuba and North Korea

Democratic US senator Cory Booker has criticized both his own political party as well as its Republican counterpart for being “feckless” in ceding congressional war powers to Donald Trump, saying that their decision could embolden the president to unilaterally attack Cuba, North Korea and other countries.

“I’m going to be one of those Democrats [who] say I think both parties have been feckless in allowing the growth of the power of the presidency,” Booker said on Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

Published: March 15, 2026, 5:00 pm

Oil prices rise after Trump claims US ‘totally demolished’ Iran’s Kharg Island export hub

Another weekend of violence compounded global market concerns over war in the Middle East, following US strikes on the vital oil hub

Oil prices have climbed again amid mounting supply fears after the US struck Iran’s vital Kharg Island oil hub and Donald Trump demanded allies help reopen the strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.8% to $104.98 per barrel during early trading on Monday. Another weekend of violence across the Middle East compounded concerns over the conflict, and its ramifications for global energy markets.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:35 am

‘Bit of treachery’: US attack on IRIS Dena undermines Indian security ties

Defence analyst says torpedo strike is a ‘humiliation’ for Modi’s government that disregarded a US defence partner

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The distress call came in to Sri Lanka’s maritime rescue coordination centre just after 5am. The ship in trouble, they determined, was well within Sri Lanka’s obligation for rescue, being just over 19 nautical miles off the coast of the southern city of Galle.

The navy swiftly mobilised and, by 6am, the first search and rescue boat was on its way, another soon close behind. It was hard to see through the thick morning mist but officers onboard kept their eyes peeled for a ship in the distance.

Published: March 15, 2026, 1:34 pm

Republican rebukes FCC chair’s threats to revoke broadcast licenses over Iran war

Senator Ron Johnson pushes back, saying he’s not in favor of government meddling in freedom of speech

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair, Brendan Carr, is facing pushback from a Republican lawmaker after warning on Saturday that broadcasters could lose their licenses if they run what the federal agency deems “fake news” over the Iran conflict.

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said in an interview on the Sunday Briefing on Fox News that he was not in favor of the government control of private enterprise or efforts to meddle with freedom of speech protected under the constitution.

Published: March 15, 2026, 7:13 pm

Trump claims he has ‘absolute right’ to impose new tariffs after supreme court blow

US supreme court has ‘ransacked’ the country, president argues, in wake of its ruling against his trade agenda

Donald Trump has claimed he has “the absolute right” to impose new tariffs after the US supreme court ruled many of the import duties he imposed last year were illegal.

The president attacked the court in a late night broadside on Sunday, accusing it of having “unnecessarily RANSACKED” the US – and failing to show him sufficient loyalty.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:09 am

Google scraps AI search feature that crowdsourced amateur medical advice

Exclusive: Revelation comes as company faces mounting scrutiny over use of AI to provide health tips

Google has dropped a new artificial intelligence search feature that gave users crowdsourced health advice from amateurs around the world.

The company had said its launch of “What People Suggest”, which provided tips from strangers, showed “the potential of AI to transform health outcomes across the globe”.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:14 am

Israeli police kill two young Palestinian boys and their parents in West Bank

Mother, father and brothers aged five and seven shot in the head as they returned from Ramadan shopping trip

Israeli police have killed two young Palestinian brothers and their parents in the occupied West Bank, shooting all four in the head and face as the family returned from a Ramadan shopping trip.

Mohammed, five, Othman, seven, who was blind and had special needs, their mother, Waad Bani Odeh, 35, and father, Ali Bani Odeh, 37, were driving through their home town of Tamoun late on Saturday when Israeli forces opened fire.

Published: March 15, 2026, 7:20 pm

Salman Rushdie says he is tired of being ‘free speech Barbie’ after 2022 attack

Author says he doesn’t ‘feel symbolic’ and hopes to steer narrative to his books after surviving assassination attempt

Salman Rushdie said he’s tired of being everyone’s “free speech Barbie” four years after the author survived an assassination attempt that left him blinded in his right eye.

“It’s a subject I’m anxious to change,” Rushdie said Friday during a talk with the Atlantic’s George Packer at Tulane University’s New Orleans book festival. “I don’t feel symbolic.

Published: March 15, 2026, 8:21 pm

Airline CEOs urge Congress to end shutdown and pay airport TSA officers

Nearly month-long funding lapse has disrupted US air travel and caused long wait times amid security officers’ absences

The CEOs of major US airlines urged Congress on Sunday to move quickly to end a 29-day partial government shutdown that has forced 50,000 airport security officers to work without pay, warning it could further disrupt US air travel.

Absences by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers had already disrupted travel at some major airports over the previous week, raising alarm as the busy spring break travel season continues.

Published: March 15, 2026, 6:29 pm

‘A molten, mushy state’: scientists may have found a new type of liquid planet

Latest observations of L98-59d, about 35 light years from Earth, suggest it could be different to anything seen before

Astronomers have identified a planet composed of molten lava, suggesting the existence of an entirely new category of liquid planet.

The distant world, known as L98-59d, is about 1.6 times the size of Earth and orbits a small red star 35 light years away. Astronomers initially thought the planet might harbour a deep ocean of liquid water, but the latest analysis suggests that it could be fundamentally different to anything seen before.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:00 am

‘Triple-threat megastorm’ to scatter snow, high winds and thunder across US

Powerful storm chain to affect 200 million in US as it carries blizzard conditions, damaging winds and thunderstorms

Winter’s grip has yet to release as an erratic patchwork of severe weather moved across much of the US, dumping heavy snow and making roads impassable in the upper midwest while damaging high winds swept across the Plains.

As portions of the mid-south readied for thunderstorms, forecasters said the storms will spread eastward and by Monday threaten a large swath of the eastern US, with mid-Atlantic states and Washington DC at greatest risk for high winds and tornadoes.

Published: March 15, 2026, 10:43 pm

Pakistan targets militant hideouts in Afghanistan as conflict continues

Afghan government reports zero casualties and accuses neighbouring country of wanting to ‘fuel the fire of war’

Pakistan has targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province overnight, as the fighting that erupted between the two neighbours late last month showed no signs of abating.

The cross-border attacks, which have included Pakistani airstrikes in Kabul, are the deadliest yet between the countries. Islamabad has referred to the conflict as an “open war”, adding to concerns about regional stability as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran engulfs the Middle East and beyond.

Published: March 15, 2026, 5:08 pm

Blown call ends World Baseball Classic semi-final as USA squeeze past Dominican Republic

• As it happened: USA 2-1 Dominican Republic

• Americans will play Italy or Venezuela in final

Gunnar Henderson and Roman Anthony homered and the United States limited the Dominican Republic’s electric offense to win a thrilling semi-final 2-1 on Sunday and move one win from capturing its second World Baseball Classic championship.

The Dominican Republic threatened in the ninth when Julio Rodríguez drew a walk and advanced to third against Mason Miller. With two outs, Miller struck out Geraldo Perdomo for his second save but the final pitch – on a full count and with the dangerous Fernando Tatis Jr up next – was several inches below the strike zone. ABS is not a part of the World Baseball Classic, so the Dominicans – who benefited from some missed calls themselves – were unable to challenge. Although the Americans’ excellent pitching won the game rather than the umpiring, it was a dismal way to end what had been an enthralling contest.

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:32 am

These aren’t AI firms, they’re defense contractors. We can’t let them hide behind their models

From Gaza to Iran, the pattern is the same: precision weapons, chosen blindness, and dead children. The cost of failing to regulate AI warfare is already too high

There is an Israeli military strategy called the “fog procedure”. First used during the second intifada, it’s an unofficial rule that requires soldiers guarding military posts in conditions of low visibility to shoot bursts of gunfire into the darkness, on the theory that an invisible threat might be lurking.

It’s violence licensed by blindness. Shoot into the darkness and call it deterrence. With the dawn of AI warfare, that same logic of chosen blindness has been refined, systematized, and handed off to a machine.

Published: March 15, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘I’m sick of stupid’: from excoriating Noem to breaking with Trump, Thom Tillis goes for fiery final act in Congress

The Republican senator from North Carolina will not seek re-election after Trump threatened to primary him

In the last US Senate hearing before Kristi Noem’s ouster, some of the fiercest criticism the homeland security secretary received came not from outraged Democrats, but from an ally of Donald Trump.

“What we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms Noem, disaster,” said Thom Tillis, the senior Republican senator from North Carolina, at the outset of a 10-minute skewering of the secretary he dubbed a “performance evaluation”.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:00 am

‘The system is broken’: grassroots Democratic outreach group aims to reconnect with voters

Swing Left is trying to revitalize Democrats’ outmoded ground game with ‘deep canvassing’ ahead of midterms

Pope Leo came top with 42%. Donald Trump was just behind with 41%. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) scored 38% and TV host Stephen Colbert 35%. Trailing behind all of them was the Democratic party, viewed positively by just 30% of voters in a recent NBC News poll. About 52% view the Democrats negatively.

Among the reasons for the distrust, argues Swing Left, a national grassroots organisation, is a broken voter contact model in which Democrats are too transactional, too last minute and too dependent on outdated technology. It is aiming to fix the problem ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:00 am

India’s scattered workforce: the chatbot keeping families in touch during emergencies

Covid exposed the lack of data on the country’s 140 million mobile migrant workers, but a new project in Odisha is helping to fill in the gaps

Raja Pradhan is sitting cross-legged, scrolling on his phone in his village in eastern India when a green WhatsApp chat bubble pops up on the screen. “Namaskar! Apana bahare kama pain jauthibe? Apananka suchana diaantu.” (Hello! Are you going outside for work? Please share your information.)

He reads the message twice, unsure whether to respond. “I don’t know where this information would go,” he says. “Would someone use it against me? The internet can be tricky at times. Why should I even share my details in the first place?”

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:00 am

‘I watched society burn a woman at the stake’: Melissa Auf der Maur on her bandmate Courtney Love and the farce of the 90s

Wary of working with Hole’s ‘impossible, drug addict’ lead singer, the bassist soon found herself entranced. So why did she jump ship for the Smashing Pumpkins – and start a relationship with Love’s enemy Dave Grohl?

It took Melissa Auf der Maur 25 years to tell anyone, even her husband, how her father had died. It was April 1998 and she was the bassist in Hole, the blistering alternative rock band founded by Courtney Love. They were on a brief break from recording what would be the band’s hit – and, for a time, final – album, Celebrity Skin, while Love, clean from heroin addiction, was pursuing a Hollywood film career.

Auf der Maur’s father, Nick Auf der Maur, was a Montreal politician, activist, newspaper columnist and career drinker who, in his youth, had been arrested for performing poetry in the street naked (with a gin and tonic in hand) and getting into a bar brawl with Jack Kerouac, who, he said, was a racist. He was also a heavy smoker. The lump that developed on his neck turned out to be throat cancer, which spread to his brain. When radiation didn’t work, he underwent an experimental procedure that cut out part of his throat and tongue, leaving him unable to eat, drink or talk properly. At home to visit him, Auf der Maur picked up the landline to make a call and heard her father’s voice on the line to a friend. He was saying he wanted to end his life, and he wanted help doing it. She put down the phone and then, later, spoke to the friend. If her father was going to end his life, she wanted to be there.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:00 am

‘Orwell went off to fight. I thought I’d have to do the same’: Raoul Peck on his intimate connection with the writer

The Haitian director was given unprecedented access to George Orwell’s archives – and found a fellow crusader for truth. His extraordinary new film highlights the sinister links between Big Brother, Trump and Putin

‘I must admit,” says Raoul Peck from his book-lined Parisian apartment, “George Orwell was not top of my list of authors who I thought would fit my current view of the world.” That view – anti-imperialist, intellectually curious and fiercely independent – has been shaped by an extraordinary life. Born in Haiti, Peck grew up under the notoriously violent Duvalier regimes, before his family fled in 1961. He was variously educated in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, then New York and Orléans in France before moving to Berlin, where he studied industrial engineering and economics. He spent a year as a New York taxi driver and five as a journalist and photographer, before getting his film degree in Berlin in 1988. In 2010, he was made chair of the French state film school.

He is best known for his dramas and documentaries, which often zoom in on his intellectual heroes. He has profiled Patrice Lumumba, the DRC’s first leader; shot a drama about the friendship of the young Engels and Marx, the crucible that created communism; created a tender portrait of South African photographer Ernest Cole; and won a Bafta for his 2017 documentary about the writer James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro. In 2021, he made Exterminate All the Brutes, a four-part TV series about colonisation and ethnic cleansing. His 2005 film Sometimes in April dramatised and explored the Rwandan genocide. No one – with the possible exception of Adam Curtis – has consistently interrogated big ideas and the structures that shape our world in a more inventive and probing way.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:00 am

‘I watch it to be close to him’: why Point Break is my feelgood movie

The latest in our ongoing series of writers looking back on their most rewatched comfort films is a tribute to an action classic that also defined an important friendship

For 25 years, I received texts from my best friend, Gary, that consisted of no intro, no signoff, just a quote from Point Break. “You’re a real blue-flame special, aren’t you, son?” was one. “The air got dirty and the sex got clean” was another. Once, as I opened a takeaway pizza, I received, with perfect timing: “I’m so hungry I could eat the ass-end out of a dead rhino.” Sometimes I would reply immediately or sometimes let a week slip by before firing off: “Lawyers don’t surf” or “Death on a stick out there, mate.”

You might say that Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 action movie helped define who we were, or at least our friendship. Eighteen when it came out, we watched Point Break on spin-cycle at Gary’s house, thrilling to the tale of FBI rookie Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) going undercover as a surfer to flush out the identity of the Ex-Presidents, four guys who don the masks of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon and Lyndon B Johnson to hit 27 banks in three years. Utah, a Rose Bowl quarterback before he blew out his knee, and sardonic, burnt-out veteran Pappas (Gary Busey) trace the chemicals in a strand of a suspect’s hair to Latigo Beach, Malibu. “Surfers are territorial, they stick to certain breaks,” Pappas tells Utah, and the bodacious dude from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure – who’s now, like, totally pumped – cosies up to surfer gal Tyler (Lori Petty) to infiltrate this tight-knit subculture.

Published: March 16, 2026, 9:00 am

Cherry on the top: Jessie Buckley pulled off a stunning double Oscar win for herself … and Chanel

The best actress winner was a red carpet triumph in her blood red and rose pink gown, the colours bringing an emotional warmth and a singularity that stood out among the familiar choices of black or gold
• Oscars 2026 red carpet – in pictures
• Oscar winners 2026: the full list

There are two ways to win at the Oscars: go home with a statuette, or be crowned on the red carpet. Jessie Buckley did the double.

Buckley’s best actress award seemed pretty much in the bag by the time the night rolled around, and she pulled off a red carpet triumph to put the cherry on top of a stellar award season. In her acceptance speech, she said her role as a grieving mother “cracked a kind of tenderness” in her. Buckley’s Chanel gown, blood red satin-backed leather and rose pink chiffon, chimed with that message. The colours brought an emotional warmth and a singularity that stood out among the familiar choices of flattering black, or glamorous gold. The silhouette put the focus on her face rather than her body, the wide crimson neckline was a visual echo of her broad lipsticked smile. There was a smart nod to Oscar history, too: the juxtaposition of a shawl-wrapped top with a waisted, full gown was in part inspired by an Edith Head gown worn by Grace Kelly to the 1956 ceremony. The reach of the Oscars is an opportunity for actors to embed themselves in the culture, telling a huge audience who they are and what they are about, and Buckley did just that.

Published: March 16, 2026, 8:20 am

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review: its huge screen blocks shoulder surfers from spying on you

Latest Android superphone packs great cameras, fast chips, long battery, a stylus and first-of-its-kind privacy display

Samsung’s latest Ultra superphone promises to keep shoulder surfers out of your business with a first-of-its-kind privacy display built into its huge 6.9in screen.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is Samsung’s top-of-the-line phone costing £1,279 (€1,449/$1,299/A$2,199) and is one of the most feature-packed handsets you can get, with four cameras on the back, an integrated stylus and AI assistance in every corner.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:00 am

Five of Europe’s best accessible island escapes

From the Venetian lagoon to the sparkling Med, these island getaways offer a welcome change of pace just a short hop from the mainland

Connected to the German mainland by a single rail causeway, Sylt is just over three hours from Hamburg by direct train. The largest of the North Frisian islands, it slices through the North Sea and the Wadden Sea, with salt marshes and mudflats to the east and 25 miles of white sands sweeping along the western coast, grassy dunes buffering the bracing winds.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:00 am

The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Mallaby review – the story of the man who changed the world

A journalist charts the progress of AI pioneer Demis Hassabis from child chess prodigy to Nobel prize winner

It was March 2016, and at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, the world was gathered to watch the culmination of a battle 2,500 years in the making. On one side was the South Korean Lee Se-dol, the second-highest ranking Go player in the world. On the other was AlphaGo – a computer program developed by London-based artificial intelligence research company DeepMind.

“Chess is the greatest game mankind has invented,” game designer Alex Randolph once said. “Go is the greatest game mankind has discovered.” Something about the ancient Chinese duel, where players place stones on a grid, trying to capture territory, feels fundamental – inevitable, even. Chess had fallen to the robots nearly 20 years earlier, when DeepBlue beat Kasparov, but Go, with its vast decision space (there are far more legal board positions than atoms in the observable universe) remained a plucky holdout.

Published: March 16, 2026, 7:00 am

The pet I’ll never forget: Penny, the pigeon who never left my side

Why would anyone kick a bird? Penny was delightful company from the moment I rescued her from some bullies in a pub

A few years ago I was sitting in a pub beer garden when a scruffy little pigeon landed on the bench. After a while, the pigeon edged a bit closer to me, and before I knew it she’d hopped on to my lap.

One of the waitresses came over and explained that this pigeon had wandered inside, but sadly some customers kicked her around to get rid of her. She looked quite young. I thought maybe she was a baby. For the next three hours, this pigeon didn’t leave my side. Then I drove home with her on my shoulder.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:14 am

Europe’s reaction to Trump’s war on Iran is a disaster – for Europe itself | Nathalie Tocci

Prevarication on the war’s legality stands in sharp contrast to the outcry from France and Germany when Bush invaded Iraq

When crisis strikes, we divide, and division breeds inaction. This is the assumption generally made about Europe’s place in the world. But a look at events in the Middle East – past and present – suggests that this is not always the case. Europe is more paralysed than divided over the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran. Yet rather than fostering a shared sense of purpose, this crisis is hollowing out Europe’s identity and undermining its ability to act independently in the world.

Rewind to 2003. The Iraq war was the quintessence of European division. France and Germany vehemently opposed the US-led invasion. Paris sought to block Washington’s unilateral action in the UN security council by rallying a passionate defence of multilateralism and the rule of international law. The UK, Italy and Spain, by contrast, backed the US attack, participating to varying degrees. Europe was divided at its core – and beyond. That year, the EU stood on the brink of enlarging to admit central and eastern Europe. Most of those former communist bloc countries supported the US, less out of conviction about Washington’s case for war than because they saw the US as their path to freedom and future security. The then-US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, infamously divided the continent, taunting “old” Europe with the support Washington was receiving from “new” Europe. The Iraq war created a three-layered fault line: within core Europe, between “old” and “new” Europe, and across the Atlantic.

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:00 am

War in Iran, chaos in the Gulf, repression in the west: and the thread that binds them all is Palestine | Nesrine Malik

In the Middle East, the occupation is the original sin. And those who banked on this US-backed ‘stability’ now find it giving way beneath them

A war spiralling in the Middle East. A death toll now in the thousands across Iran and Lebanon. Energy prices soaring. The Gulf seized up with Iranian strikes. It’s one of those eras that feels bewildering, incomprehensible, out of control. But there is, at the heart of it, a simple logic: everything that is unfolding is a result of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians.

As the conflagration spreads, the connection to Palestine becomes obscured. But it is clear how much of the stability of the Middle East was secured at the expense of the Palestinians. Look at the region before 7 October 2023. US policy on the Middle East focused on “integration’’: containment of Iran, signing up more Arab countries to normalise relations with Israel and the creation, therefore, of a bloc of economic and security interests under the US military umbrella.

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:00 am

I work with human trafficking survivors. Rich men like Bill Gates can do more to make amends for their Epstein ties | Bridgette Carr

Apologies won’t help the survivors still living with the echoes of abuse. But wealthy people have the resources to make a real impact

Years before there was a call for transparency with the Epstein files, I spent months reading the documents. Not the headlines – the documents: the emails, the financial records, the human suffering, and the internal communications that mapped how one man’s wealth and power built an ecosystem of exploitation that operated for decades. As a sex trafficking expert for more than 15 years, I’ve witnessed many men who abused their power and the system, but rarely have I seen wealth weaponized so effectively and for so long.

I read the files because I served as the expert witness for the US Virgin Islands in its litigation against JPMorgan Chase, which alleged that the bank maintained a financial relationship with Epstein despite evidence of his sex trafficking. The case ended in a 2023 settlement; the bank did not admit wrongdoing. I reviewed the messages from men with power and wealth in Epstein’s orbit. I saw what they said, what they didn’t say, and what they saw and didn’t see.

Published: March 16, 2026, 10:00 am

Paul Thomas Anderson endured one snub after another. Now the Oscars have finally seen sense | Xan Brooks

In honouring One Battle After Another, Academy voters finally welcomed Hollywood’s prodigal son into the fold

Oscar night climaxed with a metaphorical whiff of gunpowder and a defiant rebel yell as One Battle After Another broke late to claim the crowning best picture and director awards at the Dolby theatre in downtown Los Angeles. If it is true that Americans get the presidents they deserve, it follows that they should get the appropriate Academy Award winner as well.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s rambunctious counter-culture thriller is the perfect film for an imperfect USA, brilliantly reading the tea-leaves of Donald Trump’s second term with its tale of leftist activists in a proto-fascist California. One Battle After Another was the most overtly political of this year’s best picture nominees and that might have made the difference. But it was arguably the most ambitious, rousing and lip-smackingly satisfying too.

Published: March 16, 2026, 6:32 am

AI could give us our lives back – if we don’t blow it

Could we be at the beginning of a change never before seen by humans – allowing us to escape the drudgery of work?

The other day I pulled into the parking lot of a client’s offices and in the spot next to me was a woman sitting in her car blasting music. She caught me looking and rolled down her window and said, “I’ll be inside in a minute … Just enjoying my last few moments of freedom!”

Is this way we want to live? No, it’s not.

Published: March 15, 2026, 2:00 pm

I love vultures, mosquitoes and, yes, even wasps. This is why you should too | Jo Wimpenny

No species is a ‘villain’ – and even humans’ least favourite creatures are part of a web that makes all life possible

A wasp has just flown into your kitchen. Do you: a) scream and run away; b) roll up a magazine and try to bash it; or c) open a window and usher it outside? Now imagine it’s a bee – do you respond in the same way?

Our emotional responses towards the other animals on this planet are diverse, complicated and often irrational, and our contrasting perceptions of wasps and bees is a fantastic example. Bees are positively associated with honey, flowers and pollination, while wasps are negatively associated with stings, pain and annoyance – all this despite the fact that bees obviously can sting, while wasps are important pollinators, too. It’s the same for other animal pairs: sharks are mindless killers, while dolphins are paragons of benevolence; vultures are ugly and sinister, while eagles are majestic. I’m here to say that we’ve got them all wrong.

Jo Wimpenny is the author of Beauty of the Beasts: Rethinking Nature’s Least Loved Animals

Published: March 15, 2026, 1:00 pm

The Guardian view on weight-loss jabs and addiction: there is too much moralising about these remarkable medicines | Editorial

Evidence is piling up that GLP-1 drugs can treat addiction. We must learn from the way that obesity has been stigmatised

In the years since so-called weight-loss jabs entered widespread use, there have been reports that these drugs may not just reduce food cravings, but in fact cravings and desires full-stop. Earlier this month, a study using large-scale data from US veterans undergoing diabetes treatment suggested that those on the jabs were less likely to develop addictions to a wide range of drugs. Patients already using substances appeared about half as likely to suffer overdose or drug-related death if they were taking the jab as well.

This is an exciting avenue for future research. These medicines work partly on satiation and reward centres in the brain. It is likely that problematic food and drug cravings share a similar biological basis, and next-generation medicines may be more powerful or more targeted to one or the other. But, in the meantime, we should expect that existing weight-loss drugs will end up recommended (or prescribed off-label) for addiction treatment. This should make us rethink our approach to these remarkable medicines.

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 15, 2026, 5:25 pm

US complete Olympic-Paralympic ice hockey sweep with another victory over Canada

• Americans win Para ice hockey final 6-2

• US get better of their neighbors once again

Three weeks after the United States beat Canada in the Olympic hockey finals, the Americans overcame their neighbors again to win Paralympic gold and complete the three-peat at Milan Cortina.

Jack Wallace scored a hat-trick to help the US beat Canada 6-2 in Sunday’s Para ice hockey final and become the first nation to sweep the hockey tournaments at the Olympics and Paralympics. There is currently no women’s division at the Paralympics as it is classified as an open-gender sport.

Published: March 15, 2026, 6:29 pm

More countries, bigger audience but controversy lingered in Milano Cortina

Russia’s involvement meant politics could not be avoided at a Paralympics more competitive than ever

The theme of the closing ceremony of the Winter Paralympics, held at the Olympic curling arena in Cortina D’Ampezzo, was “Italian Souvenir”. It followed, through dance and music, the ambitions of a young girl, played by Sofia Tansella who has spinal muscular atrophy, to see her dreams represented in the world. It was of course a metaphor for the Paralympic movement more broadly, a movement that has been boosted by a successful two weeks in Milano Cortina.

The International Paralympic Committee has been able to boast a number of striking milestones at these Games, on the 50th anniversary of the first. Milano Cortina has had the most countries in competition, 55, and the most to win medals, 27. The number of countries winning gold medals, 18, is the joint-highest in history. Although gender imbalance remains a genuine problem, there were more female competitors than ever before, 160, an 18% increase on four years ago and 26% of the total athlete count of 611, another record.

Published: March 15, 2026, 8:59 pm

Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics 2026: day nine – in pictures

We take a look at the best images from the Games, including skiing success and ice hockey despair

Published: March 15, 2026, 4:49 pm

March Madness: Duke and UConn named top men’s and women’s seeds as Miami (Ohio) squeak in

• Arizona, Michigan and Florida also men’s No 1 seeds

• Huskies looking to complete undefeated season

UConn were awarded the No 1 overall seed in the women’s NCAA Tournament on Sunday and enters March Madness needing six more victories to complete the seventh undefeated season in school history. In the men’s tournament, Duke received the top overall seed for March Madness on Sunday, followed by Arizona, Michigan and Florida, each of whom would love a repeat of last season when all four No 1s made it to the Final Four.

The Huskies (34-0) are looking for their 13th national title and becoming the first team to repeat as champions since the Huskies won four in a row from 2013-16. They are joined by UCLA, Texas and South Carolina as the other No 1 women’s seeds.

UConn, led by stars Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd, open the tournament at home against 16th-seeded UTSA and will play in the Fort Worth Regional. If seeds hold, the Huskies could face No 2 Vanderbilt, who are coached by former UConn great Shea Ralph.

UCLA (31-1) were just behind the Huskies as the second overall seed in the tournament. The Bruins have won 25 straight games in dominant fashion with the lone loss this season coming against Texas on a neutral court.

UCLA reached the Final Four last year before losing to UConn. Cori Close’s team ran through the Big Ten and have an experienced group led by center Lauren Betts looking to win the school’s first NCAA championship.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:07 am

Lindsey Vonn says she will retire on her own terms: ‘Please stop telling me what I should do’

• Skier suffered serious injuries in crash at Olympics

• Speculation has mounted over possible retirement

Lindsey Vonn said she will retire on her own terms, and not those of anyone else.

The 41-year-old, who is recovering from a serious downhill crash at the Milan Cortina Olympics, is still deciding her next steps, something she made clear in a social media post on Sunday.

Published: March 15, 2026, 8:19 pm

Jannik Sinner ends wait for title with Indian Wells win over Daniil Medvedev

• Italian world No 2 clinches 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4) win in Californian desert

• Women’s No 1 Aryna Sabalenka snaps her losing streak in final

Jannik Sinner claimed his first title of the year with victory over Daniil Medvedev in Indian Wells, while Aryna Sabalenka snapped her losing streak against Elena Rybakina in a thrilling women’s final.

Four-time grand slam champion Sinner had had a slightly underwhelming start to the season by his stratospheric standards but he was peerless in the Californian desert, not dropping a set through the fortnight.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:27 am

‘I’m back to my best’: Lewis Hamilton marks Ferrari revival with Chinese GP podium place

• Hamilton ends long wait for top-three finish with Ferrari

• Max Verstappen says new rules make F1 like ‘Mario Kart’

Lewis Hamilton said he is “back to his best” after he finished third at the Chinese Grand Prix to claim his first podium at Ferrari.

The 41-year-old Briton beat his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc after a thrilling duel and praised Formula One for delivering what he claimed was the best racing he had ever experienced.

Published: March 15, 2026, 12:47 pm

Cameron Young holds off Matt Fitzpatrick on final hole to win Players Championship

• American pars 18th for victory after birdie on 17

• Fitzpatrick had led at Sawgrass before late slip

The PGA Tour might have lost out in the court of public opinion over whether the Players Championship could be a major. However, the level of drama as shadows lengthened on this Sawgrass Sunday set the tournament aside from most others.

It came down to Cameron Young versus Matt Fitzpatrick. As Fitzpatrick agonisingly missed for par on the 72nd hole, Young had secured the biggest win of his career. He had emerged triumphant from a sporting thriller.

Published: March 15, 2026, 10:41 pm

Richarlison rescues late point for Spurs at Liverpool to ease pressure on Tudor

Igor Tudor has been unable to claim many positives in his short Tottenham reign but he has finally earned the first point of his tenure. Spurs were a match for the Premier League champions and, after missing a collection of chances, the former Everton forward Richarlison became the most unpopular of villains.

After Guglielmo Vicario failed to keep out a Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick, it felt as if a Liverpool victory was inevitable but they could not build on the opener, a frequent shortcoming. Tudor was planning for a familiar feeling at the final whistle until Richarlison fittingly scored with a scuffed effort at the end of a match short on quality. It was the Brazilian’s sixth clear-cut chance, with the previous misses giving the expectation that Tottenham were set for a familiar feeling.

Published: March 15, 2026, 6:35 pm

Mikaela Shiffrin closes on overall World Cup title after record-equaling slalom win

• American wins eighth slalom race of World Cup season

• Shiffrin has 140-point lead over Germany’s Emma Aicher

Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin won her record-equaling eighth World Cup slalom of the season on Sunday but her main rival in the overall standings was second to maintain pressure on the American star.

Shiffrin dominated the last race before the World Cup finals in Norway to beat Germany’s Emma Aicher by 0.94 seconds, with Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener a second off the pace in third.

Published: March 15, 2026, 1:24 pm

Vingegaard takes Paris-Nice crown despite Martinez pipping him at line in finale

• Danish rider seals overall victory in final stage

• Isaac del Toro wins Tirreno-Adriatico

The two-time Tour de France ­winner, Jonas Vingegaard, claimed his first Paris-Nice title as the Frenchman Lenny Martinez pipped him in a sprint finish to win Sunday’s final stage.

Vingegaard had already won two stages in the eight-day race but left his charge for the line a fraction too late in the two-up sprint after the pair had broken away on the final climb of the hilly 145km eighth stage that started and finished in Nice.

Published: March 15, 2026, 4:42 pm

First-round of French local elections sees strong showing for National Rally and LFI

Far-right and radical left parties likely to increase their local presence in advance of next year’s presidential race

The first-round of the French municipal elections have seen a strong showing for Marine Le Pen’s far-right the National Rally (RN), as well as for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left, with both parties likely to increase their local presence ahead of next year’s French presidential race.

The French local elections, which now go to a final round runoff on 22 March, are seen as a crucial test of the political temperature before next year’s presidential election. Emmanuel Macron’s two terms in office come to an end in spring 2027 and there is uncertainty about who will next lead the EU’s second-largest economy.

Published: March 15, 2026, 10:26 pm

Israel claims brother of Michigan synagogue attacker was Hezbollah commander

Israeli military also says on social media brother of Ayman Mohamad Ghazali was ‘eliminated in airstrike last week’

Israel’s military claimed on Sunday that the brother of the recent Michigan synagogue attacker was a Hezbollah commander responsible for managing weapons in a unit that has launched “hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians”.

In a statement posted on X, the IDF claimed that Ibrahim Mohamad Ghazali – brother of Ayman Mohamad Ghazali – was a Hezbollah commander within a specialized branch of the Badr unit.

Published: March 15, 2026, 4:36 pm

Wyoming’s new six-week abortion ban prompts lawsuit

Bill faces constitutional hurdles as previous abortion bans were struck down by state supreme court in January

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Wyoming’s Republican-dominated legislature passed a six-week abortion ban this week, prompting a new lawsuit and some lawmakers to call it “an insult to voters and our institution”.

Mark Gordon, Wyoming’s governor, signed the bill while simultaneously warning of its constitutional hurdles, noting that prior abortion bans were struck down by the state’s all Republican-appointed supreme court this January. Almost immediately, an identical set of plaintiffs filed suit against the new bill.

Published: March 15, 2026, 1:57 pm

‘You just execute’: 19-year-old pilot makes emergency landing in Florida

Niko Bray, who obtained pilot’s license in January 2025, shares story after averting disaster on busy Jupiter road

A teenage pilot who made an emergency airplane landing on a busy Florida road while averting disaster entirely says “you just execute” when thrust into such life-or-death situations.

“It can happen … so fast,” 19-year-old Niko Bray said in an interview with the Florida news outlet WSVN, nearly a week after authorities say he landed the small airplane he was flying on a six-lane thoroughfare in the community of Jupiter because of an emergency in the skies.

Published: March 15, 2026, 10:00 am

Country diary: A saliva test for George the pony, and a rethink on worm control | Kate Blincoe

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: Deworming horses is as important as ever, but not at the expense of dung beetles – which are coming out of hibernation now

I slide a medical spatula into George the Connemara pony’s mouth, carefully finding the interdental gap in his teeth after his incisors. He begins licking and chewing, working out if it is edible. My job is to hold it in place for at least 30 seconds to get a good sample of his saliva on the absorbent swab, which will be analysed to see if his antibodies indicate a burden of tapeworms.

Back a decade or two, deworming horses was a routine three-monthly job in the horse-care calendar. But resistance to wormers has increased and there is growing understanding of the impact on the environment. Deworming should be targeted so that horses are only wormed if needed.

Published: March 16, 2026, 5:30 am

‘The fish fled’: Nile fisherman earning more from collecting plastic than fish

Mohammed Ahmed Sayed Mohammed is among those redeploying his skills for a local recycling company that is cleaning up the Nile

At 6am, Mohammed Ahmed Sayed Mohammed steers his boat from al-Qarsaya island through Cairo’s Nile waters towards the capital’s riverside clubs. Fifteen years ago, he searched for fish. Now he hunts plastic bottles.

“The fish fled from the plastic chokehold,” said Sayed, who has lived on the Giza island since arriving from Assiut, further south on the Nile, as a 14-year-old fishing apprentice. He never returned to his village, marrying locally and raising three children who now live alongside him with their 12 grandchildren on the island housing 200 families.

Published: March 15, 2026, 10:00 am

Mining made this US tribal area a toxic wasteland. This Indigenous nation brought it back to life

The Quapaw Nation is the only US Native community to carry out a cleanup of one of the country’s worst sites of environmental contamination

They call this land the Laue. In the late 1800s, part of these 200 acres of grassland inside the Quapaw Nation were allotted to tribal citizen Charley Quapaw Blackhawk. After forcing dozens of tribes into Indian territory before the civil war, the US government then parceled out reservations and property to individual members. It was part of the government’s attempt to “civilize” Native Americans by turning them into private, not communal, landholders and yeoman farmers in the model of Thomas Jefferson’s ideal citizen.

Yet, for the last century, little grew on the Laue. Half of it was buried beneath towering mounds of toxic rock known as chat piles. The waste rock, laced with chemicals, was left after miners extracted millions of tons of lead and zinc from the Tri-State Mining District, where the valuable ores stretched across Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma between 1891 and the 1970s. By 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had designated 40 sq miles that include nearly all the Quapaw Nation as the Tar Creek Superfund site, joining the EPA’s list of the most contaminated places in the country. Informally called a “megasite”, Tar Creek remains one of the largest and most complex environmental disasters in the country.

Published: March 15, 2026, 2:00 pm

Florida’s real estate ‘gold rush’ draws the super-rich as rising costs push others out

The luxury property surge fuels growth in Miami, but a poll finds many residents weighing an exit over housing and living costs

To a casual observer, everything in south Florida’s real estate garden is looking rosy. There’s a “gold rush” in Miami as ultra-wealthy buyers snap up mega-mansions and luxuriously appointed condos as soon as they hit the market; and the Guardian has also reported recently on the “Mamdani effect” of elite New Yorkers arriving in the sunshine state with bulging pocketbooks in search of a high-priced escape from the city’s new mayor.

Yet alongside the boom, there are rumblings of a more troubling parallel reality. Undoubtedly, the billionaire class is helping to pump even more dollars into an already thriving Florida economy. But as prices rise and the less affluent find everything from housing and insurance to gas and groceries increasingly expensive, many are considering doing something about it.

Published: March 15, 2026, 3:00 pm

Treasure hunter freed from prison after 10 years but location of gold coins still unknown

Tommy Thompson refused to give up the location of 500 missing coins found in 1988 in a historic shipwreck

A US treasure hunter who was imprisoned for 10 years after refusing to reveal the location of missing gold coins has been released from prison, without officials apparently ever learning where that gold is.

Tommy Thompson – a renowned salvager who in 1988 found the long-lost, so-called Ship of Gold near South Carolina – was freed from federal prison on 4 March, records and reports recently indicated.

Published: March 15, 2026, 2:12 pm

Chaos outside Mamdani’s home brings terror charges for ‘IS-inspired’ teens – and host of questions

Suspects accused of throwing explosive devices at rightwing anti-Islam protesters as tensions rise across US

Early on Monday afternoon, two teens in white plastic jumpsuits were escorted into a Manhattan federal courtroom. Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, who were shackled and handcuffed, quietly took their seats at the defense table.

If not for the metal restraints and jail garb, Balat, 18, and Kayumi, 19, could have been any number of young men who carry themselves with an aura of discomfort about their place in America.

Published: March 15, 2026, 12:00 pm

Virgin Australia flight met by firefighters at Melbourne airport after smoke seen coming from vape

Passenger on Flight VA 328 alerted the crew who responded by ‘containing the device’ before plane landed

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A Virgin Australia flight from Brisbane to Melbourne was met by firefighters after smoke was seen coming from a vape on board.

Flight VA 328 landed safely and all passengers disembarked normally after a vape “activated” in the cabin shortly before landing at about 4pm on Sunday afternoon in Melbourne, Melbourne airport said.

Published: March 16, 2026, 4:26 am

Mother charged with murder of 18-day-old baby girl in central London

Zahira Byjaouane, 43, arrested on Saturday after reports baby fell from property on Horseferry Road in Westminster

A mother has been charged with murdering her 18-day-old baby girl, who fell from a height at a property in central London.

Zahira Byjaouane, 43, was arrested on Saturday morning after reports that a baby had fallen from a property on Horseferry Road in Westminster.

Published: March 15, 2026, 9:38 pm

Four Iranian women’s team members set to return home after being granted asylum in Australia

Two players and a staff member reportedly left Australia on Saturday, with Iranian state media reporting that the team captain will join them

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Three more members of the Iranian women’s football squad have left Australia, having previously sought asylum after playing in the Women’s Asian Cup.

Players Mona Hamoudi, Zahra Sarbali and a team support staff member reportedly left Australia on Saturday night for Kuala Lumpur where they met up with other team members who are returning to Tehran.

Published: March 15, 2026, 1:51 pm

Twelve arrests at al-Quds Day rally and counterprotest in London

Metropolitan police say they are also investigating chants led by Bobby Vylan at pro-Palestine protest next to Thames

Twelve people were arrested as hundreds joined a pro-Palestinian al-Quds Day demonstration on one side of the Thames, while hundreds more gathered on the opposite bank to back Israeli and American attacks on Iran.

Al-Quds Day is an international demonstration of support for Palestinian rights. The event takes its name from the Arabic for Jerusalem and was established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Published: March 15, 2026, 6:49 pm

The Plastic Detox review – a film so terrifying you will want to change your life immediately

In this affecting documentary, an epidemiologist asks six couples struggling to conceive to reduce their exposure to plastics and see if it helps. The results are startling – and prove that we should all make changes now

Get up, after a restless sleep. Shower, using products that contain plastic and are in plastic containers. Fix your hair and deodorise your body using sprays smoothed by plastics, before putting on clothes woven from synthetic (plastic) fibres, picking up your plastic phone and heading out, sipping water from a plastic bottle. Chew plastic gum. Buy a snack wrapped in plastic and receive a receipt printed on plastic-covered paper. Come home, take food out of its plastic packaging, cook it with plastic utensils, then store the leftovers in plastic tubs and clean up with detergents that contain plastics and come in plastic bottles. Clean your teeth with a plastic toothbrush and plastic-infused toothpaste. Go to bed.

The list of ways in which humanity is committing species suicide may be long and growing, but The Plastic Detox is here to suggest that room should be found for the overwhelmingly widespread use of petrochemical-derived plastics. It focuses on one way we are affected by microplastics (the tiny particles that enter our bodies, having broken loose from the surface of plastic), which is called endocrine disruption: these minuscule invaders mess with the body’s hormones and contribute to all kinds of health problems, among them infertility. That’s the main concern of this documentary’s protagonist, epidemiologist Shanna Swan, whose 2021 book Count Down claimed that chemicals in plastic are a factor in falling sperm counts. (The programme doesn’t go into the debate about the difficulties of measuring exactly how vulnerable we are to microplastics: some studies have produced unlikely numbers.)

Published: March 16, 2026, 8:00 am

Sean Penn wins best supporting actor Oscar for One Battle After Another

With his third Oscar, Penn joins an elite band of triple winners, including Daniel Day-Lewis and Jack Nicholson

• Oscars 2026 winners: the full list

Sean Penn has won the Oscar for best supporting actor for One Battle After Another, at the 98th Academy Awards.

With this win, Penn has joined an elite company of male actors to win three acting Oscars, joining Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson and Walter Brennan. Penn previously won best actor Oscars for Mystic River in 2004 and Milk in 2009.

Published: March 16, 2026, 12:21 am

Naima review – triumphant note of hope fuels engrossing insight into the immigrant experience

Documentary about a Venezuelan migrant’s struggles in Switzerland is a timeworn tale of marginalisation and financial precarity

Naima, the charismatic subject of Anna Thommen’s engrossing documentary, and is always on the move. The film opens with her taking a deep plunge into a bright blue swimming pool, an image that embodies her struggles as a Venezuelan migrant in Switzerland. Naima dives deep into life goals with a fierce passion, yet she often finds herself buffeted by currents.

Sixteen years ago, she had moved to the country for love, only to be mistreated by her Swiss husband. Since her diploma was not recognised in Switzerland, she went from managing a team of 48 to being wholly dependent on her partner. Then, left in a financially precarious position after her divorce, she subsequently lost custody of her two children.

Published: March 16, 2026, 9:00 am

Saturday Night Live: Harry Styles pulls double duty in decently silly episode

The star celebrates the release of his new album by playing host and musical guest in another better-than-usual episode with cameos from Ryan Gosling and Paul Simon

For the first time in several weeks, Saturday Night Live doesn’t kick off with a political press conference sketch. Instead, we open on a middle-class family on their way to see their grandmother. Stopping at a filling station, they’re forced to leave one of their kids behind due to exorbitant gas prices. The reason costs are soaring? Simple: “The Epstein Files.”

Enter Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) to break things down: “It’s called butterfly effect, right? Epstein was first domino … bing bing bong … WAR.” As to the stock market, he puts it in terms the Harry Styles fans in attendance can understand: “It’s going one direction: down!”

Published: March 15, 2026, 2:49 pm

Howl by Howard Jacobson review – a tragicomic portrait of a Jewish man’s despair

A suburban headteacher navigates antisemitism in Gaza-outraged London in Jacobson’s latest novel

Howard Jacobson writes characters at their wits’ end; those characters are usually men, and those men are usually Jewish. Additionally, and problematically for both them and everyone around them, their collective wits are capacious: easily enlarged to allow idiosyncrasy to bloom into neurosis, preoccupation into obsession. And Jacobson’s men do the opposite of suffering in silence (although they do that too); they are much given to exhaustive and exhausting disputation, to arguing their point long after their interlocutors are longing for bed, and not in the fun way all parties might hope.

With its straightforward allusion to another Jewish writer’s witness to anguish, Howl appears to make its intentions apparent from the outset: we are located in the world of mental dissolution, of consciousness strained and subsequently fractured. But rather than Allen Ginsberg’s would-be seekers of enlightenment, disappearing into the volcanoes of Mexico and “scattering their semen freely” through rose gardens and cemeteries,Jacobson’s avatar is a somewhat prim, suburban primary school headteacher, driven to distraction not by free love and copious hallucinogens, but by fizzing anger and agonising guilt.

Published: March 16, 2026, 9:00 am

Shahrnush Parsipur: ‘The women of Iran will cause the fall of the Islamic Republic’

As her banned 1989 novella, Women Without Men, is published for the first time in the UK, the Iranian author looks back on a life of resistance and repression

As I write this, Iranians around the world are holding their breath for the end of the murderous Islamic Republic. More than three years after the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement began, amid renewed demonstrations, brutal state crackdowns and now US bombing raids, Shahrnush Parsipur’s banned novella Women Without Men arrives in the UK, where last month it was longlisted for the 2026 International Booker prize.

At 80 years old, Parsipur is one of Iran’s most celebrated living writers, and one of our boldest, most original feminists. In the 1980s, her stories were the talk of Iran’s literary circles and she was imprisoned for nearly five years, without ever being formally charged.

Published: March 15, 2026, 12:00 pm

James Van Der Beek and Brigitte Bardot among stars snubbed from Oscars in memoriam tribute

Key names were omitted from this year’s tribute to industry figures who have died over the last 12 months

This year’s Academy Awards featured an extended in memoriam section to honour the considerable number of Hollywood legends who have died over the past year.

Diane Keaton, Robert Redford and Rob Reiner were paid tribute to in standalone speeches, while Claudia Cardinale and Catherine O’Hara also had extended moments.

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:59 am

Edvard Munch’s formative influence on Paula Rego revealed in unearthed painting

‘It’s so impressive that you can’t imagine,’ wrote a 16-year-old Rego to her mother after seeing a Munch exhibition in London in 1951

He is the towering modern artist of the Nordics; she the most influential figurative painter of the Iberian peninsula. But for decades, no one realised there was a line of influence between Edvard Munch and Paula Rego.

Now, the discovery of an early painting and a previously overlooked letter by the late Rego has revealed the formative role the Norwegian painter played in shaping the Portuguese artist’s work and career.

Published: March 15, 2026, 8:00 am

Trapezes and artists: world’s oldest circus to be restored to original glory in Paris

Alexandre Dumas was wowed by it and Burt Lancaster starred there. Now the Cirque d’Hiver has a new spectacle

For more than 170 years the Cirque d’Hiver, the world’s oldest circus, has been the scene of many a breathtaking act.

In 1859, gymnast Jules Léotard – whose name would become synonymous with the one-piece – captivated audiences by launching himself from one swinging trapeze to another without a safety net for the first time in public.

Published: March 15, 2026, 5:00 am

How a ‘vacuum cleaner turned the other way’ became a popular solution to snoring disorders

Cpap machines were once used only for severe sleep apnoea but sleep medicine physicians say there has been a rise in prescribing for milder cases

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When Nick went camping in the summer with friends, he would set up his tent 100 metres away from the group.

“It became a bit that I did,” says Nick. As early as his teenage years, he learned to use humour to cope with what was immediately a social problem: the “cacophony” of his snoring.

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Published: March 15, 2026, 2:00 pm

This is how we do it: ‘We’re more adventurous now – I’ve discovered my animalistic side’

When they lived in different countries, sex was spontaneous for Rupert and Eva, but now they cohabit they experiment more

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We’ve been trying the ‘sex first’ rule when you go out on a date, because you don’t really feel like sex after dinner and a glass of wine

Even if he was on a night shift, I’d sneak into his workplace and we’d have sex there

Published: March 15, 2026, 11:00 am

My mother’s best advice: talk to your children like old friends

She treated me and my sister as her friends, and said it meant she rarely felt lonely. I see now that she wasn’t telling me what to do with my life – but expressing how much she loved us

It was summer, and I was sitting on the washing machine in the kitchen, listening to my mother tell me the best thing about having children. It wasn’t intended as advice per se – as she saw it, it was simply an outcome of motherhood – but I took it as such. Recently single and aged 30, becoming a mum couldn’t have been further from my mind, but I remember clearly what she said.

Having children, she told me, meant she’d always had a little friend. Or, in the case of me and my sister, two friends. As a result, she rarely felt lonely. From a young age, she would take us to galleries, to the supermarket, sometimes to work. Normal parenting stuff. Except she was divorced and largely on her own, so it would just be us, and she would talk to us like we were old friends. Big stuff or small, she didn’t discriminate. She talked, we listened – given we were preschool, I imagine us as Tom Hanks’ inanimate volleyball Wilson in Cast Away – but we remained incredibly close until she died in August 2020.

Published: March 15, 2026, 5:00 am

My life collapsed when my husband had an affair. How can I recover? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

It’s OK to be angry at your husband – the shame isn’t yours to carry

I have been married for 30 years. Until recently, we were the best of friends. Then he began being distant, though he remained kind. I thought this was a passing phase, a midlife crisis of some sort. But one day I found out by chance that he had been engaged in a year-long affair with another woman. Life as I knew it collapsed.

It was not so much that my world was turned upside down, as it lost its cohesion. I was instantly reduced to pieces. No matter how much I try to make sense of it all, I cannot. I am (was?) a super-active person with many interests, and this betrayal has splintered me and narrowed everything down to this single event.

Published: March 15, 2026, 6:00 am

From childhood to midlife and beyond: how to handle anxiety at every age

Talk about your fears, normalise difficult emotions, get up and move: experts share their strategies for managing anxiety at different stages of life

We are living in an age of anxiety. A 2023 survey by the Mental Health Foundation found that one in five people in the UK experience anxiety all or most of the time. In 2024, 500 children a day were being referred for NHS anxiety treatment in England.

It is one of the epidemics of our time, says Owen O’Kane, a psychotherapist and the author of Addicted to Anxiety: How to Break the Habit. “When we look at what is happening in the world at the moment, the one thing we have an abundance of is uncertainty. If you look at a textbook definition of anxiety, it is an intolerance of uncertainty.”

Published: March 15, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘I’ve been living under a shadow for 13 years’: life with prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK. But screening is not universal, and charities are divided over whether it should be extended. What do those living with the disease think?

Almost seven years into his retirement, David Bulteel should be enjoying the fruits of his 40-year career in the City. On paper, he has the lot: a tidy pension, delightful grandkids, a big house in the Buckinghamshire commuter belt. He’s naturally upbeat and driven, which he says was in part a reaction to the trauma of losing his right arm in a motorbike crash at 21. He was so energetic and enthusiastic in the office that his nickname was “Tigger”.

“My philosophy has always been that there’s no such thing as a problem that you can’t solve,” Bulteel, 70, tells me from his home, where he’s wearing two jumpers on one of the coldest days of the winter. “The reality now is that I’ve been living under a shadow for 13 years, which has had a huge impact not just on me but on my whole family.”

Published: March 15, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘The chef is a metre away from you’: the cosy allure of micro-restaurants

Tiny eateries such as the award-winning Gwen in Wales, which holds just eight customers, are spreading across the UK

It started with the portion sizes, as all-you-can-eat buffets were reduced to bite-size small plates. Then the menus started to decrease, with pages of dishes shrinking to an A5 sheet of paper.

Now restaurants are undergoing another round of downsizing. Micro-restaurants, which usually seat fewer than 20 people, are gradually spreading across the UK.

Published: March 15, 2026, 9:00 am

Create hedgehog havens – and seven other ways to help our prickly friends

Hedgehogs’ habitat is shrinking, they’re vulnerable to cars, and pesticides are affecting their food supply. Here’s how we can help them pull through

With stumpy, speedy legs, questing snouts and a fierce quiver of needles, hedgehogs are enchantingly strange, like fantasy creatures from a medieval bestiary. “It’s the nation’s favourite wild animal – every time there’s a vote or a poll, the hedgehog wins,” says ecologist Hugh Warwick, AKA “Hedgehog Hugh”, author of the Cull of the Wild and hedgehog champion.

Published: March 15, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘I have the island to myself’: how to be a castaway in Cornwall

Book an overnight stay in the cosy smuggler’s cottage on Looe Island and you get to enjoy this marine nature reserve after the day trippers have gone home

It is just after dawn and from a viewpoint on Looe Island, Cornwall, I watch two seals on the beach below. The pair entwine in the surf, her freckled, creamy belly against his, flippers wrapped around each other, eyes closed in blissful bonding. I feel like a peeping Tom, watching from behind a bush. It feels too intimate a moment to be spying upon, but the emerald-eyed cormorants guarding the beach seem unbothered.

I had arrived on Looe Island, also known as St George’s Island, off the south coast of Cornwall, the previous morning via the romantically named Night Riviera sleeper train from London, changing early in the morning in Liskeard, then 15 minutes across the waves in a small fishing boat. The island is managed by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and can only be accessed on organised visits, and while most people come on day trips, I’m staying for a little longer. I have come loaded down with all the food and bedding I will need for my three-night visit, but also with the mental baggage of workaday life. Now, that weight lifts as I watch the male seal court his lady in the shallows.

Published: March 15, 2026, 7:00 am

How to make Irish stew – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

This classic dish needs no deviation from its time-honoured traditions – but mastering it does require some skill

The first time I dared to write a recipe for Irish stew, I was invited on to the national broadcaster, RTÉ, to discuss my choices live on air. And, to my considerable relief, it was eventually decided that I had not dishonoured the memory of my ancestors. It’s tempting for modern cooks to meddle with such resolutely plain classics. Do not! It’s delicious just as it is.

Prep 20 min
Cook 2 hr
Serves 6

Published: March 15, 2026, 1:00 pm

The one thing everyone gets wrong about feminism

People love to declare the death of the women’s movement, pointing to the ‘failure’ of #MeToo or the Epstein files, but don’t give up the fight just yet, writes Rebecca Solnit

Feminism is far from dead, but people love to write its obituary. I’ve lived through dozens of them over the decades, and there’s been a fresh flurry over the past few years. These death announcements are mostly based on two dubious assumptions. One is that we’re at the end of the story, the point at which a verdict can be rendered and a moral extracted. In this version, 60 years on from the great 1960s surge of feminism, the process should be over, and if feminism has not won, surely it has lost. In reality, it’s naively defeatist to assume millennia of patriarchy entrenched in law, culture, social arrangements and economics could be or should have been fully disassembled in one lifetime.

The other assumption is that one event can be a weathervane, a measuring stick, for the failure of feminism. Three popular recent candidates are the overturning of Roe v Wade in June 2022, #MeToo, and the Epstein files. Let’s first remember that the US is not the whole world. There have, for example, been countless obituary writers proclaiming that #MeToo is over or failed, and I’m not sure what that is based on – the assumption that all sexual abuse should have ended and, if not, feminism of the #MeToo subcategory did not succeed? Is any other human rights movement measured by such criteria? Did anyone think the civil rights movement should be judged by whether it terminated all racism for ever? The perfect is the enemy of the good, and it’s often both an impossible standard and a cudgel used to bash in what good has been achieved.

Published: March 15, 2026, 6:00 am

‘My dear son’: the Ukrainian soldier who came back from the dead

In 2023, what were thought to be Nazar Daletskyi’s remains were buried in his home village and his mother, Nataliia, visited the grave every week. Three years later, he spoke to her on the phone

Nazar Daletskyi was declared dead in May 2023. The DNA match left no room for doubt, officials told his mother, Nataliia. A Ukrainian soldier who volunteered for the front in the early weeks of the war, Nazar had become one more casualty of Russia’s invasion.

Nazar’s remains were laid to rest in the cemetery of his home village. In the months after the funeral, Nataliia visited the grave at least once a week, at first to cry and later to stand in quiet contemplation, remembering her only son.

Published: March 15, 2026, 6:00 am

Oscars 2026 in pictures: One Battle After Another and Sinners take big wins

The best photos of the night at the 98th annual Academy Awards, with big wins for Jessie Buckley, Michael B Jordan, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners

• News: One Battle After Another sweeps the Oscars as Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley win big
• Oscars 2026 winners: the full list

Published: March 16, 2026, 3:23 am