‘Truly accessible to everyone’: how to start yoga

Some think yoga isn’t for them – but there’s ‘something for everybody’. Experts share what to know about the mindful practice that can improve strength and sleep

Countless articles and studies tout the benefits of yoga. It can improve balance, strength, flexibility, digestion and sleep. It can also reduce stress and support mental wellbeing. And yet many people feel like yoga isn’t for them because their bodies don’t look or move a certain way.

“That is how I felt before I started practicing yoga,” says Jessamyn Stanley, who has written two books about yoga and co-founded the yoga app The Underbelly. “I always thought yoga was just for thin, white women,” she says.

Published: February 23, 2026, 5:00 pm

With N-word incident, Bafta have shot themselves in the foot | Catherine Shoard

In not editing out Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson’s shouted tics, Bafta have allowed their successful diversity drive to be overshadowed

• BBC apologises again for Baftas N-word incident as show removed from iPlayer for re-edit

• Why the Baftas must get rid of their two-hour delay and broadcast live

• Backlash mounts to Bafta N-word controversy

Bafta’s error was big on Sunday night - but it was in the editing, or the lack of. No one could have stopped John Davidson - who has Tourette syndrome - yelling out the N-word while two black actors, Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo, were presenting a prize. But given that they did use the two-hour time delay to judiciously remove Akinola Davies Jr’s shout of “Free Palestine!” and Alan Cumming’s comparison of the themes of Zootropolis 2 (“Lies, corrupt leaders, poisoning and persecution of a race”) to contemporary America, it seems a perverse decision not to remove an appalling racial insult, yelled involuntarily, from the TV broadcast.

Published: February 23, 2026, 11:17 am

No business like snow business: blizzard shuts down the north-east US – in pictures

As another major storm brings to the area up to 2ft of snow, people brave the weather to commute and shovel

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:52 pm

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has saved the Game of Thrones universe

The original show might have ended on a whimper and the first spin-off might have disappointed but this lighter, shorter series has been a genuine joy

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I first entered into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms extremely gingerly. Game of Thrones (as we all know) all but cratered during its final season, to the point that watching it almost felt like a punishment. House of the Dragon was somehow even worse, for reasons we’ll come to shortly.

And so, presented with an opportunity to dip my toes back into Westeros, I hesitated. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me repeatedly due to a capitalist desire to permanently entrench all existing IP in order to minimise subscriber churn, shame on me.

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:03 pm

‘Profoundly moving’: Netflix’s posthumous celebrity interview series is a marvel

Famous Last Words is a series of interviews conducted with notable names and only released after their death and it offers an incredible opportunity

Exactly one day after the death of actor Eric Dane, a new show appeared on Netflix. Entitled Famous Last Words, it consisted of an interview with none other than Eric Dane himself. While at first the timing of the release might have seemed coincidental at best and exploitative at worst, the reality of the interview was something else entirely.

Dane, it transpired, had recorded the interview in full knowledge that he was dying. What’s more, he conducted it on the understanding that it would only be released in the event of his death. Because this is the conceit behind Famous Last Words. It exists as a living obituary, as an opportunity to go on the record for the very last time to contextualise their life in a manner of their choosing.

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:38 pm

A rush of blood to the penis – and vaginal tenting: what happens to our bodies when we get turned on

Arousal may be spontaneous, or arise in response to sensory stimulation, memory, fantasy or emotional connection. Here’s how to understand the differences

What turns you on? Depending on the person, the answer to that question will vary wildly. But what is really going on under the, ahem, hood when we start to get in the mood?

The first scientists to really take the physiology of sex seriously – or at least break the taboos around talking about it – were William Masters and Virginia Johnson, sexologists who began their studies in the 1950s (and got married in 1971). “They came up with what’s known as the four-stage model, which was that the body gets aroused, you hit a plateau, you have an orgasm, you go back down to baseline,” says Dr Angela Wright, a GP and clinical sexologist based in Yorkshire.

Published: February 23, 2026, 10:00 am

Mexican drug cartel boss ‘El Mencho’ tracked through romantic partner

Killing of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader sparks wave of violence across western Mexico

• Analysis: Mexico faces uphill battle to appease kingpin Trump

• Who was El Mencho?

Mexican authorities tracked down and killed “El Mencho”, one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, by following a romantic partner to his safe house near a picturesque mountain town, the country’s defence secretary has revealed.

In a press conference, officials provided the first details about the operation that led to the death of the leader of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime group, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Published: February 23, 2026, 6:21 pm

Millions under road travel bans as blizzard conditions slam US north-east

Blizzard warnings issued as some areas receive two feet of snow, creating whiteout conditions

• Blizzard shuts down the north-east US – in pictures

Millions of people in New York City and a large swath of the north-eastern US were stuck at home under road travel bans and blizzard warnings on Monday as heavy snow and strong winds intensified, creating whiteout conditions in the densely populated region.

Snowfall totals in 21 cities and towns across New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts had reached at least 2ft, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). In some areas, that snow has been accompanied by strong wind gusts of over 30mph (48km/h) and low visibility.

Published: February 23, 2026, 6:27 pm

Peter Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office

Video footage shows former peer being driven away shortly after being escorted from his London home by officers

• UK politics live – latest updates

Peter Mandelson has been arrested by detectives investigating claims he committed misconduct in public office during his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Video footage showed the former British ambassador to the US being driven away in an unmarked police car for questioning shortly after being escorted from his London home by plainclothes officers.

Published: February 23, 2026, 5:11 pm

Judge permanently bars US justice department from releasing report on Trump’s classified documents case – live

First amendment group criticizes Aileen Cannon’s order to permanently block release of Jack Smith report after dismissing case against Trump in 2024

Major institutions of higher education in the US are reckoning with the latest release of the Epstein files after discovering the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s relationships with board members, professors and administrators on campuses across the country.

In some cases, professors have been placed under review, research centers closed or conferences canceled. Students and staff have responded in different ways, including petitions, open letters and campus forums.

The supreme court (will be using lower case letters for a while based on a complete lack of respect!) of the United States accidentally and unwittingly gave me, as President of the United States, far more powers and strength than I had prior to their ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling.

For one thing, I can use Licenses to do absolutely “terrible” things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades, but incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, can’t charge them a License fee - BUT ALL LICENSES CHARGE FEES, why can’t the United States do so? You do a license to get a fee! The opinion doesn’t explain that, but I know the answer! The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used.

Published: February 23, 2026, 7:53 pm

FBI head Kash Patel defends ‘frat bro’ hijinks with US hockey team in Milan

As multiple investigations unfold back at home footage emerged of Patel whooping it up with team in locker room

The FBI director, Kash Patel, has a lot on his plate just now. There’s the shooting death of the armed man who entered Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home; the weeks-old search for missing Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie; not to mention the ongoing furor around the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files.

So eyebrows were raised on Sunday when phone footage emerged of Patel whooping it up with the men’s USA hockey team in Milan after their gold medal victory against Canada at the Winter Olympics.

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:47 pm

Senate Democrats call for government to start refunding $175bn in tariff money

Ron Wyden, Ed Markey and Jeanne Shaheen unveiling bill requiring CBP to issue refunds and pay interest

A trio of Senate Democrats is calling for the government to start refunding roughly $175bn in tariff revenues that the supreme court ruled were collected because of an illegal set of orders by Donald Trump.

Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire are unveiling a bill on Monday that would require US Customs and Border Protection to issue refunds over the course of 180 days and pay interest on the refunded amount.

Published: February 23, 2026, 5:18 pm

‘Death to the dictator’: Iranian students hold protests for third day

Demonstrations spread to Tehran’s Al Zahra University one month after security crackdown left thousands dead

Students at universities in Iran have held a third consecutive day of protest just over a month after the violent suppression by security services of mass street demonstrations left thousands dead.

The protests came amid tensions between Iran and the US. Washington has built up military forces and pressure in the Middle East as it negotiates with Tehran – with the next round in Geneva on Thursday. Donald Trump has warned “really bad things will happen” if there is no deal.

Published: February 23, 2026, 6:41 pm

GoFundMe for actor Eric Dane’s family raises more than $415,000 after his death

Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria actor died on Thursday less than a year after he publicly revealed ALS diagnosis

A GoFundMe campaign meant to provide financial support for the widow and daughters of Eric Dane after the actor’s recent death had raised more than $415,000 as of Monday.

The fundraising platform over the weekend had temporarily paused the “In Honor of Eric Dane” campaign while it underwent a standard review. But by Monday, GoFundMe said it had verified the effort and listed the Grey’s Anatomy star’s family as the beneficiary.

Published: February 23, 2026, 6:50 pm

Brandi Carlile concert raises over $600,000 for families affected by ICE

Singer criticizes Trump administration’s ‘violent theater’ as she supports people caught up in Minneapolis crackdown

Brandi Carlile’s weekend concert in Minneapolis, Minnesota, raised more than half a million dollars for families affected by the disruptive presence of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol agents in the city.

Carlile, a Grammy-winning Americana artist from Washington state, livestreamed her show Be Human: A Concert for Minneapolis from the Target Center on 21 February. The show, played for over 12,000 people, raised more than $600,000 for the Minnesota-based Advocates for Human Rights organization, “so that they can help and represent thousands of families who desperately need it”, the singer announced on Instagram.

Published: February 23, 2026, 7:46 pm

CDC deputy director abruptly resigns from role as agency reels from turnover

Ralph Abraham, who started CDC role in January, is second top official to step down from agency this month

Ralph Abraham, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s principal deputy director, has stepped down, the agency said on Monday, announcing the exit of a top official for the second time in February.

The agency known as the CDC – which is temporarily being run by Dr Jay Bhattacharya – said the departure was effective immediately and attributed it to unforeseen family obligations. It did not comment on who would replace Abraham.

Published: February 23, 2026, 5:52 pm

New details emerge about armed man shot and killed at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Austin Tucker Martin, 21, was killed by Secret Service after entering Trump’s Florida resort with a shotgun on Sunday

• US politics live – latest updates

The 21-year-old man who was shot and killed after having entered Donald Trump’s Florida resort on Sunday – while carrying a shotgun – came from a North Carolina family of the president’s supporters and had reportedly become increasingly fixated on the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files.

The focus of the FBI’s investigation into the intrusion attributed to Austin Tucker Martin is tightening on his movements and motives. Martin was confronted by Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy inside the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago and killed after he had raised a shotgun into the shooting position at about 1.30am on Sunday, law enforcement said.

Published: February 23, 2026, 2:24 pm

No evidence behind RFK Jr’s claim keto diet can cure schizophrenia, experts say

Health secretary probably referred to Harvard psychiatrist who says he’s ‘never used the word “cure” in my work’

Psychiatric researchers are pushing back against the claims by the health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, that a doctor at Harvard “cured schizophrenia using keto diets”, while also acknowledging that a carefully supervised ketogenic diet shows promise for a variety of mental health conditions.

Kennedy Jr’s statement probably referred to the Harvard psychiatrist Dr Christopher Palmer, who said he has “never once used the word ‘cure’ in my work. I have never claimed to have cured any mental illness, including schizophrenia,” but added: “I have talked about ketogenic diet being a very powerful treatment, even to the point of inducing remission of symptoms of schizophrenia.”

Published: February 23, 2026, 2:00 pm

Fears of polio resurgence as US vaccine adviser questions need for childhood shots

Survivors say US healthcare system not ready for new cases – ‘the only thing to fix polio is the polio vaccine’

With preventable infectious diseases surging and a top US vaccines adviser saying all vaccine recommendations may be reconsidered, experts are bracing for more polio cases while survivors say the medical system is not ready for polio.

“We don’t have a healthcare infrastructure to take care of a polio outbreak,” said Grace Rossow, an operating-room communications coordinator in Illinois, who has long-term health issues following a case of polio as an infant.

Published: February 23, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Horror on a shocking scale’: resurgent US movement calls for end to family ICE detention

Solidarity campaign mobilizes as thousands of children like Liam Ramos taken amid Trump’s immigration crackdown

On 28 January, hundreds of protesters gathered near the Dilley immigration processing center in south Texas, where hundreds of children are being held. Days earlier, immigration lawyer Eric Lee filmed a video of detainees screaming and chanting “libertad”, or “freedom”.

Soon after, solidarity events arose in the state. “Community members saw the children and families crying out [and] having their own protests from within and said to everybody: we need to show up there too,” said the Rev Erin Walter, executive director of the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry.

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:00 pm

A CBS News personality is starting his own media company – but keeping his day job

David Begnaud is launching an independent media company using the beehiiv platform while remaining a contributor at the network

As media jobs disappear and the industry shifts even further to a focus on individual personalities, rather than global brands, many journalists are choosing to leave stable jobs and strike out on their own by starting paid newsletters on platforms such as Substack and beehiiv.

Two prominent television news personalities, the CNN anchor Jim Acosta and ABC News correspondent Terry Moran, both struck out on their own last year. But Wendy McMahon, a veteran television executive who most recently served as president of CBS News before dramatically resigning in May 2025, doesn’t think that TV journalists need to leave their network jobs to be able to start branching out on their own.

Published: February 23, 2026, 2:00 pm

If AI makes human labor obsolete, who decides who gets to eat?

Amid talk of artificial intelligence taking our jobs, the big unasked question is: how will we be fed?

How will we be fed? That’s the biggest question not seriously being addressed amid all this talk about whether or not artificial intelligence will end up taking over all of our jobs.

Formidable though the technology appears, similar fears have popped up repeatedly since the Industrial Revolution, and most working-age adults remain employed. Still, what is sorely missing is a serious debate about what to do if this future in fact materializes.

Published: February 23, 2026, 11:00 am

‘I want to come back, to win gold’: banned Ukrainian determined to race for glory in helmet of memory

On the eve of the fourth anniversary since Russia invaded Ukraine, Vladyslav Heraskevych has no regrets about sacrificing his Winter Olympic dreams in Milano Cortina

It is the image that will forever define the 2026 Winter Olympics: a Ukrainian skeleton racer, stoic and unbowed, holding a helmet bearing the faces of 24 athletes killed by Russia. Behind him, the icy track serves as a reminder of the dreams he sacrificed for a greater purpose.

It was an extraordinary act of bravery and defiance, which carried the tremors of Tommie Smith and John Carlos’s civil rights protest in 1968. But in his first in-depth interview since being disqualified from the Milano Cortina Games Vladyslav Heraskevych makes one thing clear. He has unfinished business with the Olympics.

Published: February 23, 2026, 8:00 pm

Highs, lows and halfpipes: the Guardian’s most memorable Winter Olympics moments

Curling cursing, podium camaraderie and stunning speed on skis linger for our writers after an astonishing Games

Best moment Matt Weston winning double gold. It was so well deserved. He fought hard for the victories and the emotions afterwards showed how much it meant to him.

Biggest disappointment Seeing the second GB skeleton relay team, Freya Tarbit and Marcus Wyatt, take fourth place. The sense of almost getting that medal, the sadness was so visible. I was so impressed by their performance, I wanted to hug them both.

Published: February 23, 2026, 3:01 pm

John Oliver on Elon Musk’s X: ‘Now worse than useless’

Last Week Tonight host delved into the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in relation to the Epstein files and Musk’s poisonous ownership of X

On his new episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver wasted no time digging into the files related to late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, which have once again ensnared former prince Andrew.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known after being stripped of his royal titles for his connection to Epstein, was arrested last week – the first arrest of a senior member of the royal family in modern history – on allegations that that he had shared confidential material with Epstein while serving as a UK trade envoy.

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:53 pm

It hurt when the N-word was shouted out at the Baftas – because we are also hearing it so much outside | Nadine White

I was disturbed, but I wasn’t shocked. It’s a bigger problem that in these toxic times, so many of us endure this and other slurs in our daily lives

At the outset of the Baftas, the gilded crowd anticipated historic wins, emotional speeches and enjoying the familiar glow of a cultural institution congratulating itself on progress – whether fully warranted or not.

Then, as proceedings began and as Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo, two of the leading actors of our time, stood on stage, there was the N-word – shouted from the audience by John Davidson, a Tourette syndrome campaigner who also lives with TS and is the inspiration for the Bafta-winning film I Swear.

Nadine White is a journalist and film-maker

Published: February 23, 2026, 3:53 pm

Are dating apps giving people the ick? | Dave Schilling

The past year has been turbulent for Tinder and Bumble. Fortunately, it turns out the real world has its charms

Valentine’s Day is mercifully behind us for another year, so we can all go back to not loving each other again. How wonderful it is to be freed of the burden of expressing our emotions in public. I didn’t post a flowery declaration of devotion for my girlfriend on social media, and I kept expecting a flood of messages asking me if we’d broken up already. Such is the peer pressure of a holiday designed purely to justify our own self-worth. Well, someone is willing to put up with me, therefore I have value.

Needing to rub your love into other people’s faces is a natural outgrowth of how absolutely miserable it is out there for finding romance. The world is not exactly filled with optimism these days, as we all hunker down with our cans of tinned fish, waiting for the next disaster to strike. Couple that (pun intended) with the onslaught of digitized dating solutions like the apps Hinge, Raya and Bumble and you have a rancid stew of solitude to look forward to. Why not mark yourself safe from loneliness by posting a picture of you and your partner snogging in the middle of a Walgreens (contraception aisle, of course)?

Published: February 23, 2026, 11:00 am

In a world where eating has become solitary and rushed, Ramadan restores something radical: shared time | Muhammad Abdulsater

Fasting while working long hours is physically demanding. But gratitude is less abstract when hunger has been felt

• Making sense of it is a column about spirituality and how it can be used to navigate everyday life

Iftar isn’t just eating, it’s synchronisation. Everyone waits. Everyone eats together. It is a rare moment of collective rhythm.

In a world where eating has become solitary and rushed, Ramadan restores something quietly radical: shared time. Iftar is not simply the moment hunger ends but the moment waiting becomes collective. People pause together, watch the same light fade over the horizon, hear the same call to prayer and reach for food at the same time. There is no personalised schedule, no eating on the run. This age-old ritual insists that nourishment is not only physical but spiritual and social, that being fed is being seen.

Published: February 23, 2026, 2:00 pm

Stephen Lillie on the fourth anniversary of the war in Ukraine – cartoon

Continue reading...

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:22 pm

I am a 15-year-old girl. Let me show you the vile misogyny that confronts me on social media every day | Anonymous

Objectification, hate, rape threats: the politicians debating online abuse mean well, but to truly understand, they need to see what I see

If you’re anything like my parents, you probably wouldn’t even understand most of the content that floods my social media, no matter how hard I try to avoid it.

Here’s a recent example from Instagram: “Do y’all females ever tell ur homegirls ‘Sis chill you letting too many dudes hit?’” Essentially, that means: “Women – do you ever tell your girlfriends that they’re whores and need to stop letting so many guys fuck them?” The reel, posted by a 19-year-old man, appeared on my Instagram feed without me wanting to see it, or ever interacting with any other similar content. The comments that followed were pure misogyny. “Women see body count as a leaderboard and they try to outdo each other,” was one of them. Translation: all women are competitively promiscuous.

The writer is an anonymous teenage web user

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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: February 23, 2026, 8:00 am

The Guardian view on the fourth anniversary of Putin’s war: Ukraine is exhausted, but not broken | Editorial

Despite relentless attrition at appalling human cost, the Kremlin has not achieved its goals. Maximum economic pressure can undermine its war aims

Four years after Vladimir Putin launched the biggest conflict on European soil since the second world war, the human cost of his revanchist ambition mounts ever higher. Across a 750-mile frontline in the east of Ukraine, Russian forces make minimal progress despite relentless attrition, advancing more slowly than troops during the battle of the Somme. In 2025, the estimated number of Russian casualties in “the meat grinder” was 415,000.

For Ukraine, the suffering will scar generations to come. Battlefield casualties are estimated to be about 600,000. Since the invasion, as many as 6 million people have been displaced inside the country and 4 million, mainly women and children, have left. Civilian deaths soared last year as Russia stepped up its bombing campaign of cities and infrastructure in an effort to break Ukrainians’ will.

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: February 23, 2026, 6:39 pm

Lindsey Vonn says she almost had leg amputated after crash at Winter Olympics

• 41-year-old developed compartment syndrome

• Skier credits Team USA surgeon with saving leg

Lindsey Vonn says she came close to having her leg amputated in the aftermath of her crash during the Olympic downhill earlier this month.

The 41-year-old sustained a complex tibia fracture to her left leg in the crash and underwent multiple surgeries in Italy before being flown back to the US for further treatment last week. But in an Instagram post on Monday, the American said the crash also led to compartment syndrome in her leg. The condition occurs after traumatic injuries such as falls from heights and car crashes. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “compartment syndrome happens when there’s too much pressure around your muscles. The pressure restricts the flow of blood, fresh oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and nerves. Compartment syndrome is extremely painful.” The lack of blood flow can lead to permanent damage to patients.

Published: February 23, 2026, 3:51 pm

‘Hockey’s not hockey any more’: did three-on-three overtime ruin Canada’s Olympics?

Two Olympic finals between Canada and the US were settled by sudden death. The format made the showpieces feel more like a coin toss than a climax

Two Olympic finals against the US, two strong performances, two sudden-death losses. Canada is so over overtime.

While all good things must come to an end, it’s hard to fathom why hockey’s international rule-makers think that the very best things – huge clashes that were some of the hottest tickets of the entire Olympics – should be ended using three-on-three golden-goal overtime, a concept beloved only by people with a train to catch or firm dinner reservations.

Published: February 23, 2026, 12:05 am

Crampons, crashes and creativity: Tom Jenkins’ best photos from the Winter Olympics

Our photographer shares his favourite images from the Games in Italy

I’ve been lucky enough to attend six summer Olympic Games, but I’d never before photographed a Winter Olympics. They’ve always been too far away and the UK has never been a major snowsport country, which has limited their news appeal. This time it was different. With Team GB anticipating a record medal haul and the Games staged in northern Italy, I headed off with nervous excitement, lured by the promise of fast action sports occurring amid beautiful snowy vistas. I covered ski jumping, big air, ice hockey, biathlon, curling and much more. A lot of it was alien to me but it was very enjoyable. There were new rules to learn, new challenges to face – I’ve certainly never had to wear sharp crampons at a football match.

The Games were full of contrasts. From a sporting perspective, the gentle gracefulness that I observed at the figure skating was offset by the full-on brutality of ice hockey brawls, while the delicate precision of curling was juxtaposed by the frantic chaos of short-track speed skating. From a geographical and cultural perspective, Livigno, which is perched high up in the Alps close to Switzerland, seemed like a giant playground for modern snow sports – geared towards those who like to twist and twirl high in the sky – while Cortina, in the Dolomites, was far more old-fashioned and populated by the traditional skiing establishment. Milan, meanwhile, featured a cluster of modernist, edge-of-town arenas, with international fans happily catching the metro to and from the events. But, in my experience, transportation wasn’t always so convenient. The huge amount of travelling between venues – I went to all but one – was exhausting and getting a late night bus over the mountains between Livigno and Bormio in a blizzard felt a bit hairy.

Published: February 23, 2026, 1:54 pm

Everton v Manchester United: Premier League – live

• Follow updates from Monday’s 8pm (GMT) kick-off

• Ten talking points from the weekend | Email Daniel

I’m minded of Martin Buchan’s legendary response – later pilfered by Gordon Strachan – to a reporter he didn’t know putting a hand on his chest to stop him going to get a drink.

“A quick word, Martin?

And because he’d been so rude I added ‘fuck off’.”

Published: February 23, 2026, 8:11 pm

Winter Olympics were again unrelatable and ‘useless’ and yet utterly astounding to watch | Andy Bull

The Games offer little fame or fortune but the purity of the athletes and their stories made them great

It was the Olympics of politics and penises, of JD Vance being jeered and of Ukrainian bobsledders being banned from the competition, of a convicted criminal beating the teammate she was guilty of defrauding, of Lindsey Vonn crashing out 12 seconds into the race and of Ilia Malinin making one mistake too many, of the internet became momentarily obsessed with slow‑motion videos of a Canadian stroking a curling stone with the tip of his finger, and it was the Olympics where the Norwegian ski‑jump team refused to dignify questions about whether or not they were injecting acid into their genitals.

Like I said right at the beginning, Pierre de Coubertin never wanted a Winter Olympics. If that line sounds a little familiar it might be because you read it here a fortnight or so ago. “The great inferiority of these snow sports is that they are completely useless,” Coubertin wrote, “with no useful application whatsoever.” But it’s true, too, that over time he changed his mind. And by the end of the International Olympic Committee’s very first Olympic “winter sports week” at Chamonix in 1924 he gave a speech in which he told his audience that “winter sports are among the purest”.

Published: February 23, 2026, 8:00 am

Benfica’s Prestianni suspended by Uefa after Vinícius Júnior incident

• Benfica appeal against ban for Real Madrid second leg

• Brazilian alleged he was racially abused

Gianluca Prestianni will not be available for Benfica’s Champions League playoff at Real Madrid on Wednesday night after Uefa suspended him following allegations that he racially abused Vinícius Júnior during the first leg. The one‑game ban is a provisional mea­sure as an investigation continues.

Benfica have said they will appeal and regret being “deprived” of the winger, but the club admitted they did not expect to be able to prevent the 20-year-old Argentinian from missing the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Published: February 23, 2026, 6:36 pm

Mercedes magic and Ferrari’s rapid starts: what we learned from F1 testing

George Russell has been purring in a balanced car in pre-season while Aston Martin are still hunting for power

The big four – Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren – have been at pains throughout testing to claim they are not the top dog, in something of an inverse Mexican standoff, each decrying their own strengths. Undeniably, however, Mercedes emerge from the three pre-season tests looking strong.

Published: February 23, 2026, 8:00 am

Mexico erupts and World Cup security fears rise after a cartel boss’s killing

The fallout from the operation that took out ‘El Mencho’ has already led to the cancellation of football matches. Could the World Cup be affected too?

• Violence erupts after Mexican forces kill cartel boss ‘El Mencho’

• Who was ‘El Mencho’, the former police officer who co-founded an ultraviolent cartel?

There is just one road that leads to the Estadio Akron, the stadium home to Mexican club Chivas de Guadalajara, which is scheduled to host four group matches at this year’s World Cup. As the tournament approaches, traffic has been the main concern about the stadium.

On Sunday, there was a different issue. A little more than a mile away, near the go-kart track named for Mexican Formula One driver Sergio “Checo” Pérez, a burning bus blocked the road.

Published: February 23, 2026, 12:51 pm

Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action

Rio Ngumoha lifts Liverpool, the tussle to be Harry Kane’s England deputy and Chelsea self-destruct

Tottenham weren’t quite as dreadful as they were in losing 4-1 to Arsenal in November, but they were still extremely so, devoid of wit, energy, solidity, creativity, quality, and everything else one would hope to see in a football team. Make no mistake, they are in serious danger of going down and, assessing their fixtures, it is not easy to see where they might win enough points to stay up – all the more so given the form of West Ham and Nottingham Forest who are both playing well. Spurs, on the other hand, haven’t won a league game in 2026 and look like they’ve forgotten how – partly, it must be said, because of an awful injury list. So, where does Igor Tudor go from here? It may well be that his only option is to pick both Dominic Solanke and Randal Kolo Muani, get balls into the box, and hope they can make enough of them to save him – which might not be The Tottenham Way^TM, but is a lot better than relegation. Daniel Harris

Published: February 23, 2026, 8:00 am

LAFC’s dominant win over Inter Miami showed the value of comfort and continuity

Three thoughts on the opening weekend of MLS in 2026, including a new Galaxy forward to fear and a pointed celebration in DC

You know a situation is dire when it casts Luis Suárez as its level-headed participant.

Such were the scenes after Inter Miami opened their MLS Cup defense with a pitiful 3-0 defeat at Los Angeles FC. Through 90 minutes, with LAFC coming off a midweek continental match, both team’s stars stuck it out to try starting the 2026 season on the right foot. Son Heung-min made it 89 minutes, subbed out when the result was beyond doubt. Lionel Messi played every minute but was held without a goal contribution, failing to place either of his shot attempts on target and seeing all three created chances go uncashed by his teammates.

Published: February 23, 2026, 11:00 am

Norway (population: 5.7m) beats US (342m) to top Winter Olympics medal table

• Country wins most golds (18) in Winter Games history

• USA, GB and Australia also set team records

• Norwegians put emphasis on participation

Norway has once again topped the Winter Olympics medal table, surpassing countries with far larger populations.

The Scandinavian country won more gold medals (18) and more total medals (41) than the US, who came second in both categories (12 golds and 33 total medals). Norway’s 18 golds were the most by a country in Winter Olympics history, while their cross-country skiing hero Johannes Høsflot Klæbo accounted for six golds on his own, more than the all but seven other countries at this year’s Games.

Published: February 22, 2026, 4:24 pm

China’s Eileen Gu soars to ski halfpipe gold but controversy surrounds Zoe Atkin’s bronze

• Gu and Li Fanghui take Winter Olympic gold and silver

• Atkin’s bronze matches that of sister Izzy in 2018

Say what you like about Eileen Gu. Plenty have since she switched allegiances from the US to China in 2019. But the most compelling athlete at these Winter Olympic Games sure knows how to deliver. On the slopes. In front of the world’s media. And especially in the blazing heat of competition.

On the final run of a women’s halfpipe final that many in Livigno reckoned was the greatest in history, Gu stepped up again, sliding down a 22-foot wall of ice before twisting and spinning her body high into the brightest of blue skies to become these Games’ alpha female yet again – just as in Beijing four years ago.

Published: February 22, 2026, 12:30 pm

‘Political sabotage’: EU leaders accuse Hungary of undermining support for Ukraine

Viktor Orbán’s government blocks fresh economic measures against Russia on eve of war’s fourth anniversary

• Europe live – latest updates

European leaders have accused Hungary of sabotaging support for Ukraine on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, after a defiant Budapest blocked fresh economic measures against Moscow.

Germany, France and other EU states failed to persuade Viktor Orbán’s government on Monday to approve the latest EU sanctions package and a loan meant to help Kyiv meet its military and financial needs. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, described Hungary’s actions as “political sabotage”.

Published: February 23, 2026, 6:03 pm

Nick Reiner pleads not guilty in his parents’ killings

Reiner, 32, charged with two counts of first-degree murder after parents were stabbed to death in December

Nick Reiner pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.

His new attorney, public defender Kimberly Greene, entered the plea during arraignment in the case on Monday morning, while Reiner was behind glass in the Los Angeles courtroom.

Published: February 23, 2026, 5:37 pm

Nancy Pelosi-palooza: Democrats praise lawmaker’s career at California convention

Officials at California Democratic convention celebrated the former House speaker’s advocacy as she prepares to retire

It was a “Nancy Pelosi-palooza” in San Francisco over the weekend, as thousands of California Democrats gathered in her beloved city by the bay, a place the former speaker of the House has represented in Congress for nearly four decades. They were there to attend the state party’s annual convention – but with Pelosi retiring at the end of her term, it was also a days-long celebration of a woman many Democrats regard as a living legend.

A video salute during the general session charted her rise from a stay-at-home mom to the US House of Representatives, where she shattered the marble ceiling and became the first – and to this day only – woman to wield the speaker’s gavel. Tote bags were emblazoned with her silhouette in every color of the rainbow – a nod to her trailblazing advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community. It also included one of her favorite aphorisms: “We don’t agonize, we organize.”

Published: February 23, 2026, 7:19 pm

Sam Altman defends AI’s energy toll by saying it also takes a lot to ‘train a human’

OpenAI CEO also downplayed concerns about how much water datacenters require at AI summit in India

The OpenAI boss, Sam Altman, has tried to ease concerns about how much power is used by artificial intelligence models by comparing it to the amount of energy required by human development.

“People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model – but it also takes a lot of energy to train a human,” Altman told the Indian Express recently while in India for the AI Impact summit. “It takes about 20 years of life – and all the food you consume during that time – before you become smart.”

Published: February 23, 2026, 5:40 pm

Epstein files cast pall among US faculty and students: ‘I just feel a deep disappointment’

Ties to the disgraced financier run deep through the academic world, documents released by the DoJ show

Major institutions of higher education in the US are reckoning with the latest release of the Epstein files after discovering the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s relationships with board members, professors and administrators on campuses across the country.

In some cases, professors have been placed under review, research centers closed or conferences canceled. Students and staff have responded in different ways, including petitions, open letters and campus forums.

Published: February 23, 2026, 12:00 pm

Study reveals whistling secret of horses’ whinny

Scientists have discovered source of neigh’s unique combination of high- and low-pitched sounds

Horses whinny to find new friends, greet old ones and celebrate happy moments like feeding time.

How exactly horses produce that distinctive sound – also called a neigh – has long eluded scientists.

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:36 pm

BBC producers say they ‘didn’t hear’ N-word slur as ‘working in a truck’, following second Baftas apology

Corporation says it is sorry that words spoken involuntarily during ceremony by John Davidson, who has Tourette syndrome, were not edited out

• With N-word incident, Bafta have shot themselves in the foot

• Why the Baftas must pivot to broadcasting live

• Backlash mounts as Jamie Foxx and Wendell Pierce criticise outburst

BBC producers overseeing coverage of the Bafta film awards say they did not hear a racial slur it mistakenly broadcast on BBC One, as the corporation apologised for the error that remained uncorrected for several hours.

The broadcast containing the N-word remained on BBC iPlayer overnight before the coverage was taken down. The BBC later apologised and said the show would be re-edited, following a backlash.

Published: February 23, 2026, 1:22 pm

US supreme court takes up fossil fuel firms’ climate accountability case

Judgment in city of Boulder’s lawsuit against Suncor Energy USA and ExxonMobil could affect wave of climate litigation

The US supreme court has decided to hear arguments in a climate accountability lawsuit, marking the first time the high court has weighed in on such a case. The decision could potentially hinder the wave of climate litigation the US has seen in recent years.

“It’s not a good sign,” said Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law and Graduate School.

Published: February 23, 2026, 4:04 pm

How an annual ‘wedding flight’ of 1,000 virgin queens is ensuring the revival of Europe’s dark bee

The Belgian ceremony attracts beekeepers from the Netherlands, France and Germany keen to boost dark bee numbers and stop the spread of the hybrid honeybee

Every summer, 1,000 virgin queens descend on the Belgian town of Chimay. During the “wedding flight”, a male attaches to the female. His endophallus (penis equivalent) is torn off and he falls to the ground and dies. Mission accomplished.

Beekeepers come and pick up their fertilised queens in small colourful hives, driving them back home, sometimes more than 300km away. They will use the genetic material gathered in south Belgium to build new colonies in the Netherlands, France and Germany.

Published: February 23, 2026, 5:00 am

Less snow, or more risk? What you need to know about avalanches and climate change

Rising temperatures are forcing some ski resorts to close, while leaving others at greater risk of extreme weather

Avalanches kill about 100 people in Europe each year, with vast masses of ice, snow and rock regularly crashing down on hikers and skiers who have been caught unawares.

The structure of the snow, angle of the slope and variation of the weather can dictate whether a gentle disturbance – like a gust of wind or the glide of a snowboard – can trigger a deadly shift in the mountain.

Published: February 22, 2026, 9:00 am

‘That’s a losing battle’: baboon incursions cause tense human-wildlife standoff in Cape Town

Animal rights activists disagree with authorities on how best to handle boom in primate population near Table Mountain

At the edge of Da Gama Park, where the Cape Town suburb meets the mountain, baboons jumped from the road to garden walls to roofs and back again. Children from South African navy families living in the area’s modest houses played in the street. Some were delighted; some wary; most were unfazed by the animals.

A few miles away, overlooking a soaring peak and sweeping bay, Nicola de Chaud showed photos of food strewn across her kitchen by a baboon. In another incident, a baboon threw one of her dogs across the veranda. In January, a male baboon lunged at her and refused to leave the house for 10 minutes.

Published: February 22, 2026, 7:00 am

Netflix boss says $83bn Warner Bros takeover will benefit industry

Comments by Ted Sarandos follow Donald Trump’s demand for company to remove Democrat from board

• Trump warns Netflix of ‘consequences’ unless it pulls top Democrat from board

• Business live – latest updates

The boss of Netflix has launched a fresh defence of its $82.7bn (£61bn) takeover of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) assets, as he defended the streaming company’s contribution to the UK film and TV industry.

Ted Sarandos claimed Netflix buying WBD would bring “growth” to the entertainment industry, amid attempts by rival Paramount Skydance to launch a counter offer for the studio business which he said would do the opposite.

Published: February 23, 2026, 11:08 am

‘Trump’s reign of terror must end’: California Democrats plot national return to power

Emboldened by recent wins, elected officials gathered in San Francisco to share strategy for a midterm ‘reckoning’

Fury at Donald Trump was the coin of the realm, as thousands of California delegates, activists and elected officials gathered in San Francisco this weekend, emboldened by a string of victories and confident the Golden state would help deliver a power check on the president in the upcoming midterm elections.

On Saturday, Democrats streamed through the Moscone Center convention complex, sporting lanyards emblazoned with Gavin Newsom’s name and tote bags adorned with one of Nancy Pelosi’s favorite aphorisms: “We don’t Agonize, we organize” – symbols of a party in transition as the former speaker approaches retirement and the term-limited governor eyes a presidential campaign.

Published: February 22, 2026, 11:24 pm

US tariff policy ‘hasn’t changed’ despite supreme court ruling, trade chief says

Jamieson Greer also said US won’t pull out of deals with UK, EU and others after court declared Trump tariffs illegal

Top US trade negotiator Jamieson Greer insisted on Sunday that the Trump administration was set to persist with its tariffs policy, two days after the supreme court declared many of Donald Trump’s tariffs illegal.

The ruling issued on Friday by the highest US court was a sharp rebuke to the Republican president that toppled a key pillar of his aggressive economic agenda – even as it prompted Trump to announce a new global tariff using different statutes, albeit temporary.

Published: February 22, 2026, 6:41 pm

The next Mamdani? Progressive Nithya Raman shakes up LA mayor’s race

Highly rated councilmember makes last-minute entry after endorsing former ally Karen Bass – can she build a campaign to win?

Nithya Raman, a progressive urban planner, entered Los Angeles politics with a bang when she was elected to city council in 2020, defeating an incumbent Democrat endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton.

More than five years on, the 44-year-old is making waves again with her last-minute entry into the LA mayoral race. Raman filed to run just hours before the deadline – after recently endorsing Mayor Karen Bass for re-election – to the surprise of constituents, and political allies and opponents alike.

Published: February 22, 2026, 2:00 pm

More than 600 people have died trying to cross Mediterranean in 2026, UN says

Deadliest start to a year in more than a decade, according to the International Organization for Migration

A least 606 people trying to reach Europe in search of refugee have been reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2026, marking the “deadliest start to a year” in more than a decade, the UN’s migration agency said on Monday.

The figure includes at least 30 people who are feared dead or missing after their boat capsized in severe weather off the coast of Greece on Saturday. Authorities rescued 20 people, including four minors, and recovered the bodies of three men and one woman, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said.

Published: February 23, 2026, 6:50 pm

German tourists trying to create floating sauna rescued from Swedish ice floe

Authorities mounted rescue operation after group of five lost control of ice sheet in Stockholm archipelago

Five people have been rescued from an ice floe carrying a sauna tent, a motorised saw and an onboard motor after they lost control of their DIY vessel in the Stockholm archipelago.

Swedish authorities believe the passengers, who were German tourists, had been attempting to create their own motor-powered floating sauna when the swell from a passing passenger ferry broke the piece of ice and stranded them near Värmdö, an island near Stockholm.

Published: February 23, 2026, 3:14 pm

Robert Mugabe’s son charged with attempted murder over Johannesburg shooting

Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, known for lavish lifestyle, also accused of theft and being illegal immigrant after man allegedly shot in back

A son of the late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has been charged with attempted murder after a 23-year-old man was allegedly shot in the back on 19 February in an upmarket area of Johannesburg.

Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 28, appeared in court on Monday for a brief hearing alongside co-accused Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze. Mugabe’s lawyer Sinenhlanhla Mnguni declined to comment when asked by reporters whether the two men were related. Mnguni said he would request bail for his clients at the next hearing on 3 March.

Published: February 23, 2026, 1:48 pm

Wegovy and Ozempic owner dealt blow as next-gen weight-loss drug is labelled ‘obsolete’

Novo Nordisk’s shares fall sharply after testing of CagriSema falls short of investors’ expectations

• Business live – latest updates

The owner of Wegovy and Ozempic has suffered a significant setback, as its highly anticipated new weight-loss treatment was labelled “obsolete” after disappointing clinical trials.

Novo Nordisk’s shares fell sharply on Monday after the results from testing the Danish company’s CagriSema drug fell short of investors’ expectations.

Published: February 23, 2026, 2:26 pm

Letterboxd’s most eager reviewers are changing cinema etiquette: ‘I was excited to pull out my phone’

The popular film-logging app is spurring cinephiles to linger through the credits and jot down their thoughts right away

I completely turn my phone off when I go to the movies. Not just on silent – all the way off. I say this not because I think that I’m better than you, or that by doing so the ghost of Billy Wilder will come back to shake my hand. I consider it one of life’s little luxuries: for at least an hour and 45 minutes, I am entirely unreachable. I keep my phone off for the duration of the credits, too. It feels decadent to stay put as my fellow moviegoers slowly filter out, illuminated only by rolling text.

And, lately, the glow of the Letterboxd app.

Published: February 23, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘No surprise’: Robert Aramayo’s teachers knew Bafta winner was destined for great things

Awarded best actor and rising star for role as man with Tourette syndrome in I Swear the 33-year-old was ‘mesmerising’ even when learning his craft in Hull

• What is Tourette syndrome, what are tics and what happened at the Baftas?

Standing on stage, barely holding back tears and struggling to express his startled elation at being named best actor at last night’s Bafta awards in London, the first words to leave Robert Aramayo’s mouth were “wow”.

His next few words, chosen after a brief and only half successful attempt to compose himself, were “I absolutely can’t believe this.” And how could he. Aramayo, 33, had not only unexpectedly beaten the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet to capture his grand prize, but had also collected the rising star award earlier in the evening, becoming the first actor or actress in history to win both awards on the same night. It was, in his own words, unbelievable.

Published: February 23, 2026, 7:47 pm

‘A spiritual awakening’: why Con Air is my feelgood movie

The latest in our series of writers on their most important comfort films is a celebration of Nicolas Cage’s finest action moment

It’s easy to poke fun at Nicolas Cage. Between the meltdown memes, dodgy hairdos and his more taxman-friendly choices of roles, he has frequently made himself a target for ridicule among the masses.

Fresh off an Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas, the actor’s decision to follow up with three action films must have seemed baffling at the time. The gambit paid off, though. Consisting of The Rock, Con Air and Face/Off, this unofficial “trilogy” of blockbusters would showcase the fundamental unknowability of Nicolas Cage.

Published: February 23, 2026, 10:00 am

Else review – pandemic-style horror has bad guys crawling out of the woodwork, literally

Thibault Emin’s thriller sees a new couple forced to barricade themselves in an apartment amid an outbreak in which the infected merge with their physical surroundings

Heavily fermented films born from Covid claustrophobia are still coming out of the woodwork – quite literally in the case of this visually arresting Gallic number, in which two shut-ins find themselves under attack by an entity that has grown out of the wooden slats with which one of them has barricaded the apartment windows. This isn’t your average pandemic thriller; here, the infected meld with inorganic material in their surroundings, until their outward contours and their personhood are gone.

Thibault Emin’s film starts with a little whiff of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s Delicatessen. After their one-night stand, hypochondriac Anx (Matthieu Sampeur) and impertinent Cass (Edith Proust) find themselves bunkered up in one corner of a madcap apartment block. They banter with the other residents – gruff Mr Mouaki (Toni d’Antonio) and his family, an enigmatic Japanese tenant (Lika Minamoto) holed up with her dog – down the waste-disposal chutes. Observing the unfolding martial-law response over the internet, they feel safely cocooned, until Cass notices a strange accumulation of pebbles underneath Anx’s furniture.

Published: February 23, 2026, 11:00 am

Willie Colón was an explosive energy source who took salsa into the stratosphere

With his gangster image, Colón ruffled the feathers of the musical establishment, but thrilled millions of fans as he displayed the raw rhythmic possibility of salsa

Willie Colón, who has died in New York at the age of 75, was many things: master blaster of Nuyorican salsa; Puerto Rican superstar; actor in Mexican soap operas; an activist and, later, a reactionary in New York politics. These are just a few of the myriad accomplishments of a musician who always seemed to be in a hurry to move on, make new music and get into a spat with a fellow salsero or political opponent. Colón was an energy source, a musician as loud and vibrant – and sometimes infuriating – as the city he lived and died in.

While to Nuyoricans – Puerto Ricans living in New York – Colón was a legend, to many Anglo New Yorkers he barely registered, perhaps noted by a few for playing with David Byrne during the singer’s adventures in Latin American music. He was nominated for 10 Grammys but never troubled the US Top 40, yet across much of Latin America he was arguably the most celebrated brass player of the past six decades, winning the Latin Grammys’ musical excellence award in 2004. Colón was to salsa what Elvis Presley was to rock’n’roll – the fearless teenager whose loose, fast, rough interpretation of the music he heard on the streets helped create a genre that grew into the dominant Latin dance music.

Published: February 23, 2026, 12:29 pm

The occult-tinged murder that rocked a quiet Welsh village: best podcasts of the week

BBC’s Crime Next Door examines how a 17-year-old vampire-obsessed student took the life of 90-year-old, Mabel Leyshon. Plus, people who have found a better way to approach life

The 2001 murder of 90-year-old Mabel Leyshon at her home on the Welsh island of Ynys Môn (Anglesey) by an assailant who drank her blood made once-friendly neighbours suddenly fearful of one another. Behind the slightly sensationalist title, this podcast from the BBC’s Crime Next Door strand sensitively retells the story, with host Meic Parry contextualising what a case like this meant in a close-knit Welsh community. Hannah J Davies
Widely available, episodes weekly

Published: February 23, 2026, 7:00 am

‘We watched 9/11 from the rooftop, blasting the music out’: how The Disintegration Loops became a requiem for the attacks

It is an epic piece of music that literally falls apart – and it perfectly captured the end-of-days chaos after the tragedy. Composer William Basinski and musician Anohni recall its febrile birth in New York’s avant-garde scene

‘Do you remember me phoning and saying, ‘Get over here! You won’t believe what’s happened!’” William Basinski is reminiscing with his old friend Anohni about the summer of 2001, when he made a startling discovery. Out of work and at a loose end, the experimental composer had decided to digitise some recordings he’d made in the early 1980s – snippets of orchestral music and muzak he found on shortwave radio stations. He was planning to add his own instrumentation, but as the tapes started playing on a loop he noticed something else was happening: the music was gradually degrading. The recordings were so old that the iron oxide particles were falling off the tape as they played. Soon, there would be nothing left but crackles and then silence.

It was every musician’s worst nightmare. But for Basinski it was like striking gold.

Published: February 23, 2026, 5:00 am

‘What do I play at a party? Oasis’s Wonderwall goes down a storm’: Alex James’s honest playlist

The Blur bassist loves his Britpop rivals, weeps over Radiohead’s Creep and finds Chitty Chitty Bang Bang sexy. But which Beatles hit did he get sick of?

The first song I fell in love with
I remember standing up in year 3 and doing the routine to The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by Laurel and Hardy and the Avalon Boys. I really wanted it for Christmas – it went to No 2 in 1975 – and Father Christmas managed to get it in my stocking.

The first single I bought
I was on a canal boat holiday with the Scouts and Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners was all over the radio, so I went down on my bike to buy it from Wilco in Bradpole Road in Bournemouth.

Published: February 22, 2026, 9:00 am

As If by Isabel Waidner review – surreal doppelganger story

Two uncannily similar men switch places in an existential farce that playfully explores the precarity of working life

In Isabel Waidner’s previous novel, 2023’s Corey Fah Does Social Mobility, a working-class writer wins a literary prize. As the trophy takes the form of an elusive UFO, Corey Fah – an outsider unfamiliar with the baffling inner workings of the system – is unable to collect or even confirm the award. Waidner has said that the novel was partly inspired by the experience of winning the Goldsmiths prize for their previous work Sterling Karat Gold, and by the ephemeral nature of success, with its “unfamiliar contexts of social power and opportunity”.

In Waidner-world the surreal is always lurking, gleefully waiting to trip the reader up. As If uses the acting profession and its inherent themes of performance and doubleness to explore the precarity of work. A Waiting for Godot transported to the housing estates and grotty sublets of Clerkenwell, London, the book opens with a gnomic Vladimir/Estragon-type exchange between two startlingly similar strangers in a flat. They are both in their late 40s, very tall, dark-haired, a mirror image of each other – “my unremarkable eyes, they were looking back at me”, Aubrey Lewis, who is subletting the flat, notices with some alarm. “Were we ever to be seen together, I thought, we would reflect badly on each other.” The other man, dressed in “a novelty T-shirt, the less said of it the better, and pyjama bottoms”, had “walked in through the door as if he owned the place”. He introduces himself as Lindsey Korine and announces he is cold. Rifling, with Pinteresque fuss and deliberation, among the “historic arrangement” of heavy coats left by the previous subtenant, he assumes a new guise for his next role in the narrative.

Published: February 23, 2026, 9:00 am

Politics Without Politicians by Hélène Landemore review – could we get rid of Farage, Truss and Trump?

A Yale lecturer’s radical proposal to replace elected leaders with ordinary people, chosen by lottery

No Donald Trump, Nigel Farage or Liz Truss; no Zack Polanski, Jacinda Ardern or Volodymyr Zelenskyy either. No political parties and no elections, but instead a random bunch of ordinary people chosen by lottery to run the country for two-year spells, like a sort of turbo-charged jury service except with the jurors holding an entire country’s fate in their hands.

If you think this idea sounds intriguing and refreshing, you might love Politics Without Politicians, Hélène Landemore’s argument for radically extending citizen power. If you think it sounds like maddening whimsy, ill-suited to the seriousness of the times we are living through – well, we’ll come to that later. But first, to the argument that politics is so broken as to be beyond repair, and that scrapping electoral representation is the best way of fixing it.

Published: February 23, 2026, 7:00 am

Myth, monsters and making sense of a disenchanted world: why everyone is reading fantasy

I have made the leap from literary fiction to fantasy – for those who think it’s mere wish-fulfilment, here’s why we need that thing with the dragons

Fantasy doesn’t need defending. It is one of the great cultural forms at the moment, all-pervading, ubiquitous. Maybe even the dominant form of writing just now, in line with the bookseller’s joke that contemporary publishing divides into A: romantasy and B: everything else.

But it might need explaining a little bit, for those who don’t get its pleasures; who still see it as wish-fulfilment, or as a low form that literary fiction gets to look down upon or direct a puzzled tolerance towards. As a writer of literary fiction who has borrowed and rejoiced in fantasy tropes for years, and has now himself written an out-and-out fantasy, I’m beyond embarrassment. I’ve been reading and loving fantasy all my life, and for me its best creators stand comfortably alongside the greats of any genre. And yet, I’m still encountering a faint sense that there is something to be accounted for in writing fantasy. That I ought to have reasons for wanting to do that thing with the dragons, no matter how culturally pervasive it is.

Published: February 22, 2026, 12:00 pm

Neither saint nor sinner, Artemisia Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene is electrifyingly alive

Soon to go on display at the National Gallery of Art in DC, it took a female artist to portray the biblical figure not as shamed and repentant but in the throes of ecstatic rapture

A woman knocks her head back. Her eyes and mouth are closed but she is awake. With flushed cheeks, red lips and long, golden hair, she glows from a sharply lit flame in a room otherwise cloaked in darkness. Wearing textures ranging from a lace-trimmed chemise blouse – slipping down her right shoulder and exposing her porcelain skin – to a heavy yellow and purple material, she appears to be alone. Unaware of our presence, she exists in a state of sublimity, but also freedom.

The woman we are looking at is Mary Magdalene “in ecstasy”, painted in the early 1620s by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian baroque artist famed for her heroic and powerful depictions of mythological and biblical women. Recently acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, it will go on view – free of charge – from 24 February. While it is, monumentally, the institution’s first acquisition by Gentileschi, it is also a picture that shows the saint “neither repentant nor suffering”, as curator Letizia Treves has written. An important distinction because, for centuries, Magdalene’s image has been shaped not just by scripture, but fabulated and conflated by powerful men.

Published: February 23, 2026, 2:20 pm

Access all areas: behind the scenes at the 2026 Baftas – in pictures

Guardian photographer Sarah Lee had exclusive backstage access at this year’s film Baftas. Here are her candid shots of stars, fans – and a bear

Published: February 23, 2026, 1:05 pm

‘I paid people with pints and chips’: Georgina Duncan on the prize-winning play she tapped out on her phone

Revisiting the Troubles in 1990s Belfast, Sapling is the result of intensive research in the city. And winning the Women’s prize, says Duncan, ‘is the maddest thing that’s ever happened to me’

It took Georgina Duncan a few seconds to realise that Indhu Rubasingham, when announcing the winner of the Women’s prize for playwriting last week, was talking about her drama, Sapling. The 30-year-old recalls the moment: “The first sentence I heard her say, I was like, ‘That could be any of the plays.’ Then I was like, ‘Holy shit! This is the maddest thing that’s ever happened to me.’”

The news still hasn’t fully sunk in, but anyone who has read Sapling will not be surprised by Duncan’s victory. Set in Belfast in the 1990s, the play follows 16-year-old Gerry, whose older brother Connor was murdered 10 years earlier by another child. “Someone described it as being about the scar tissue behind grief, which I thought was so eloquent,” Duncan says. The play was born out of her own fear of loss: “Grief is something we all experience in our lives. And it frightens me.”

Published: February 23, 2026, 8:00 am

Are we really overdiagnosing mental illness?

It’s tempting to dismiss the proliferation of labels as a fad, but there’s more to this phenomenon than a simple culture-war reading allows

My psychological research rarely makes good comedy material, but in a standup show in London recently, those two worlds collided. One of the jokes was about how everyone is getting diagnosed with ADHD these days – about the social media videos that encourage viewers to identify common human experiences, like daydreaming or talking a lot, as evidence of the condition. The audience laughed because everyone got it – they’ve all witnessed how common it seems to have become in the last few years. When something becomes this prevalent in society, and this mystifying, it’s no surprise it ends up as a punchline.

Part of my work as an academic involves trying to solve the puzzle of why so many more people, especially young people, are reporting symptoms of mental illness compared to even five or 10 years ago. (ADHD is a form of neurodivergence, rather than a mental illness, but both have seen an increase, so they are related questions.) Whenever I talk about this – to colleagues, school staff, parents – it doesn’t take long until someone brings up that judgment-laden, hot-button word: overdiagnosis.

Published: February 22, 2026, 12:00 pm

The pet I’ll never forget: Stevie, the chicken who joined my dog pack

Affectionate, ballsy, she thought she was a dog, and taught me how social and intelligent chickens can be

Stevie and her siblings were the first batch of chickens I ever owned. I fostered them from a nearby animal shelter in 2021. Stevie was the most vocal of the three so I named her after one of my favourite musicians, Stevie Nicks.

I live on a huge plot of land in Malibu which I treat like an animal sanctuary – any animal that I can rescue and help, I will. I’ve been that way since I was a little kid. When my parents gave me a small allowance I would run to the pet store and bring a new animal home. Sometimes, I would find animals on the street and take them in.

Published: February 23, 2026, 11:00 am

My rookie era: I wasn’t immediately good at oil painting, but it taught me to find pleasure in struggle

One week I spent three miserable hours trying to paint a satin ribbon, and went home in a filthy mood

• Read more summer essentials

As a five-year-old, I loved fairies, Spice Girls and Vincent van Gogh. It wasn’t the famous ear incident or the existential despair that I found fascinating, but a picture book. For the Love of Vincent, by Brenda V Northeast, told the story of Van Gogh’s life but with one minor change: Vincent was a teddy bear, not a depressed Dutchman. It was this book that lead me to the real Van Gogh and to his art, which was vibrant and alive and made complete sense to a small child who mainly painted with her fingers. I loved Vincent, man and bear; I even went as Vincent Van Bear to Book Week, and confused the hell out of everyone.

I was a happy painter for years, until I reached high school and I started getting marked for it. When art went from something I simply did to something I could be judged for, that made it terrifying. And as I learned more about artists like Vincent (man, not bear), I began to suspect that an artist’s life was for other people, who seemed to experience life a lot more vibrantly than I did, good and bad. Taking solace in the fact that I would never have been exceptional made it easier to just stop.

Published: February 23, 2026, 2:00 pm

These are the nine best US laptop backpacks for hauling tech gear on the go – tested

Your $1,000 laptop deserves a protective home on the road. A tech journalist and frequent traveler recommends his nine favorites

• The four best personal-item backpacks that fit under US airline seats

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Whether you’re flying across the country on vacation, meeting with an important client downtown or just heading to your local coffee shop for work, there is a good chance you’re bringing a backpack along, with a laptop squirreled away inside.

While you can toss a laptop into just about any bag, the best laptop backpacks are specially tailored to pamper what is probably one of your most expensive (and delicate) possessions. That means a padded pocket lined with soft non-scratch material, easy access to your computer without unpacking everything and lots of extra pockets for portable mice, chargers and other accessories. Add in all of the standard backpack considerations such as capacity, comfort and durability, and you have a lot of factors to consider.

Best overall:
Mission Workshop Meridian backpack

Best for travel:
Peak Design Travel Backpack

Published: February 22, 2026, 6:15 pm

This is how we do it: ‘He gives me the confidence to try things I’ve never done before’

A new relationship in their 50s brought adventure, curiosity and freedom for Alexandra and Laurent

• How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

I love how committed and loyal Laurent is. For him, I’m at the top of the pyramid

Published: February 22, 2026, 11:00 am

I’m worried my boyfriend’s use of AI is affecting his ability to think for himself | Annalisa Barbieri

Overdependence on chatbots is a growing problem, and though your boyfriend’s ADHD may be a factor, he needs to find the root of his anxiety

My boyfriend of eight years, who is 44, has ADHD and runs his own business. He’s always struggled with admin and mundane tasks, but AI has revolutionised how he works. Now I’m worried he can’t seem to do anything without AI. He is a heavy ChatGPT user and uses it even when there’s a better non-AI alternative (eg he’ll ask it for train times rather than using Trainline, even though it’s less accurate). He just got his ChatGPT Wrapped and he’s in the top 0.3% of users worldwide.

I worry about his ability to think independently, as well as the environmental impact. I know it’s a useful tool for him at work, but he uses it for everything in life.

Published: February 22, 2026, 6:00 am

Is it true that … men need to consume more calories than women?

Men tend to burn more energy at rest, but other factors also carry weight

‘Generally speaking, yes,” says Bethan Crouse, a performance nutritionist from Loughborough University, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all rule. Humans burn calories to fuel everything from movement to sleeping. For the general adult population aged from about 19 to 64, guidance puts daily energy needs at about 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men (the requirements are very different in children and adolescents, and tend to fall with age: they decline between 65 and 74, and drop again after 75). But averages hide a lot of variation.

One of the main reasons men typically need more calories is that they usually have a higher resting (or basal) metabolic rate, meaning they burn more energy at rest. This is largely explained by differences in body composition – on average, men have more lean muscle mass, while women tend to have a higher proportion of body fat – and muscle burns more calories than fat.

Published: February 23, 2026, 8:00 am

Body diversity returns to London fashion week as wider industry heads ultra-thin

Karoline Vitto, Phoebe English and Sinead Gorey include wide range of body shapes on catwalks

Body diversity has made a comeback at London fashion week despite a wider shift towards ultra-thinness in the fashion industry.

Emerging designers including Karoline Vitto, Phoebe English and Sinead Gorey included a wide range of body shapes on catwalks over the past four days. Sizes have ranged from a UK size 10-16, a category referred to as mid-size in the industry, to plus-size, also known as curve models, which measures from a UK size 18 upwards. Sample size, often referred to as straight models, ranges from a UK 4-8.

Published: February 22, 2026, 7:30 pm

A new start after 60: I baked a pie every day for a year – and it changed my life

Vickie Hardin Woods was worried she would lose her identity when she retired. Instead, she came up with a plan that made her feel more creative, connected and valued than ever

When Vickie Hardin Woods retired, she knew she needed a plan. “I was worried about losing my carefully crafted identity as a professional. I was looking for something to carry me through that time … What else can I be?”

She decided to do – rather than be – something new. Hardin Woods would bake a pie every day for a year, using fresh ingredients local to her home in Salem, Oregon – and she would give each pie away.

Published: February 23, 2026, 7:00 am

Rise of the ‘daycap’: is this the end of late-night drinking?

Forget nightcaps – an afternoon tipple is the new way to squeeze socialising into your evening, while still getting to bed on time. A great idea or a recipe for disaster?

Name: The daycap.

Age: As old as fermentation, and impatience.

Published: February 23, 2026, 3:23 pm

Hiking on the roof of North Africa: a trek to Morocco’s tallest peak

A fabled boutique hotel in the Atlas mountains makes a stunning base for hikes to spectacular viewpoints

Coming up the footpath from Imlil, Hussein and I step aside to let a laden mule go past and I look back. On the wooded lower slopes of the valley are clusters of tall houses, some plumed with wood smoke. There appears to be a lot of building work going on, some of it to repair the damage caused by the 2023 earthquake. The sound of a concrete mixer comes cutting through the cool mountain air mixed with birdsong and human voices. Turning back to face south, I can see the Atlas mountains, austere and aloof, a few snow patches on the upper slopes. That’s where we are going, to the top of Toubkal at 4,167 metres, the highest peak in North Africa.

Hussein has been a guide in this beautiful Moroccan valley all his adult life. “Most people here work in tourism now,” he says, waving a greeting to a muleteer who is passing us. The man is clutching the tail of his animal to steady himself up the steep track. “Twenty years ago everyone grew walnuts and subsistence food,” Hussein says. “Now we’ve still got walnuts, but we’ve also planted apple trees as a cash crop. It leaves time for the tourist work.”

Published: February 23, 2026, 7:00 am

‘She would pop up in my sexual fantasies’: what happens when you fancy your therapist?

They’re often compassionate good listeners who focus on their clients’ needs – so is it any wonder many patients find themselves with a crush? A writer, who is in exactly this position, talks to people on both sides of the couch

I was half-watching the latest series of the Netflix romcom Nobody Wants This when suddenly things got interesting. Spoiler alert: it had just been revealed that one of the characters (Morgan) was in a relationship with her newly ex-therapist (Dr Andy). While some of the characters freaked out, declaring the relationship very concerning, I felt a frisson of excitement. Because I, too, have harboured the desire to date my therapist.

As it turns out, this fantasy is neither unusual nor unexpected. “Psychoanalysis almost insists on transference,” explains psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber, using the term coined by Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, in his 1895 work Studies on Hysteria. The basic premise is that the patient projects old feelings, attitudes, desires or fantasies on to their therapist. This can manifest in numerous ways – often at the same time – covering the whole gamut of emotions and relationships, from love to hate, maternal to erotic, and everything in between.

Published: February 22, 2026, 12:00 pm

The world order we’re leaving behind may be replaced by no order at all | Eduardo Porter

In the world being ushered in by Trump, power will prevail over cooperation. We will come to rue having taken this path

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, inspired a wave of enthusiastic nodding among the cosmopolitan crowd gathered in Davos last month when he took to the podium and proclaimed that the world order underwritten by the United States, which prevailed in the west throughout the postwar era, was over.

The organizing principle that emerged from the ashes of the second world war, that interdependence would promote world peace by knitting nations’ interests together in a drive for common security and prosperity, no longer works. The US blew it up.

Published: February 22, 2026, 2:00 pm

Worst of the worst? Most US immigrants targeted for deportation in 2025 had no criminal charges, documents reveal

A Guardian analysis finds the vast majority of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time from January to August last year had no criminal convictions

A Guardian analysis of government records has found that the vast majority – 77% – of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time in 2025 had no criminal conviction, exposing a stark gap between the Trump administration’s rhetoric and reality.

Within days of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) trotted out a phrase that his surrogates would come to use over and over again: “the worst of the worst.”

Fewer than half of the people in the data (40%) had any criminal charge against them, and only 23% had a conviction.

Of those who did have a criminal conviction, nearly half were for non-violent traffic and immigration offenses.

Traffic offenses alone made up nearly 30% of the convictions, the largest category by far.

Some 9% of criminal convictions were for assault, while only 1% were for sexual assault and just 0.5% were for homicide.

Published: February 22, 2026, 1:00 pm

Floods, a candlelight vigil and Olympic stars return home: Monday’s photo of the day

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

Published: February 23, 2026, 2:35 pm