Should you get a cat? Five expert tips for making life-changing decisions

Making choices can be difficult when options are not clearly better or worse than each other – how does one even begin to decide?

I love cats. I’d been idly keeping an eye out for a less allergenic breed, when bam – a kitten became available. Suddenly I had to decide whether to take the leap.

Even though I’d been considering cat ownership for a while, I felt anxious. I mulled over all the responsibilities: vet bills, stubborn allergies, years of commitment. One big sticking point was travel. Having a cat would be rewarding, but did I want it right now if it meant I couldn’t decide on a whim to book a cheap last minute flight to another city? Did I want to buy Fancy Feast, or stay fancy-free?

Published: February 19, 2026, 5:21 pm

Dear Kristi Noem: you’re tracking down ICE critics? I’m one of them | Robert Reich

The homeland security department is reportedly seeking information on critical social media accounts. Look no further

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google, Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing.

I’ll save them time.

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

Published: February 19, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘A queer true crime story’: inside a shocking he-said-he-said murder

A gay couple both have entirely different accounts of a gory murder, a fascinating story unravelled in a new HBO documentary

Everyone in Old Louisville knows about the couple who killed someone. In this neighborhood of elaborate Victorian architecture and genteel walking courts, the story of Jeffrey Mundt and Joey Banis and the murder on 4th Street is a local legend that won’t go away, gossiped about at happy hours and garishly re-enacted on true crime shows like Oxygen’s Snapped: Killer Couples, which ran an episode on the case two years ago.

In some ways it’s easy to see why Mundt and Banis have become a 21st-century Leopold and Loeb, the famous gay lovers who inspired Hitchcock’s Rope. Their 2009 trial hit almost every square on the true-crime bingo card, involving meth-fueled group sex, pathological lies forming webs of deceit, intense BDSM, and a body left to rot in the basement of a haunted former sanatorium.

Published: February 19, 2026, 1:13 pm

Extreme heat lab: enduring the climate of the future

Graham Readfearn enters a simulation to investigate how heatwaves affect the human body

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:00 pm

Jesse Jackson showed us how love can always be a potent force in public life | Reverend William Barber

We can honor my mentor and the late civil rights icon by becoming the America we’ve never yet been

Before 5am on Tuesday, Jesse Jackson Jr called to tell me his father and my friend, the Rev Jesse Louis Jackson, had died at 84 years old. I shared a prayer with the family and listened to Jesse Jr talk about how he had heard his father breathe his last breath in the middle of the night. When he called his mother to the room, he told me, she reached toward his father and said: “A mighty lion has fallen.”

In Africa’s savannas, the lion is respected because he has a power that all the other animals recognize, even if they do not understand it. The responses to Jackson’s death have proven him to be a lion in this sense – remembered with respect by people from every walk of life, even those who did not understand him. Though Donald Trump has built a political career by opposing almost every policy Jackson worked for in public life, he recalled Jackson as a “force of nature”. Trump recognized his power, even if he didn’t understand it. Anyone who wants to help reconstruct the America that Jackson worked for should take time to understand the source of this mighty lion’s strength.

Published: February 19, 2026, 2:40 pm

Digital blackface flourishes under Trump and AI: ‘The state is bending reality’

From TikTok deepfakes to smears put out by the White House, fake videos modeled on Black archetypes are running rampant - putting Black users at risk

Late last year, as a US government shutdown cut off the Snap benefits that low-income families rely on for groceries, videos on social media cast the fallout in frantic scenes. “Imma keep it real with you,” a Black woman said in a viral TikTok post, “I get over $2,500 a month in stamps. I sell ’em, $2,000 worth, for about $1,200-$1,500 cash.” Another Black woman ranted about taxpayers’ responsibility to her seven children with seven men, and yet another melted down after her food stamps were rejected at a corn-dog counter.

Visible watermarks stamped some videos as AI-generated – apparently, too faintly for the racist commentators and hustlers more than happy to believe the frenzy was real. “You got people treating it like a side hustle, selling the stamps, abusing the system,” the conservative commentator Amir Odom whinged. Fox News reported on the Snap deepfakes as if they were authentic, before issuing a correction. Newsmax anchor Rob Schmitt claimed people were using Snap “to get their nails done, to get their weaves and hair”. (Lost in the outrage was a basic fact: white Americans make up 37% of Snap’s 42 million beneficiaries.)

Published: February 19, 2026, 3:35 pm

Revealed: Epstein cultivated relationship with CBP officer, causing US investigation

Guardian review of US justice department files reveals Epstein interacted with six CBP officers. The officer investigated denied any knowledge of trafficking underage girls

Federal investigators examined Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer who worked at the St Thomas airport to which Epstein regularly flew on his private planes before traveling by boat or helicopter to his private island, newly released documents reveal.

As part of that investigation, which did not result in any charges, investigators also issued subpoenas related to three additional CBP officers working at the Cyril E King airport (STT) on St Thomas, documents show. The Guardian also identified two other CBP officers on St Thomas and in Florida who were in contact with Epstein, based on emails and text messages between Epstein, his staff and the officers. It does not appear the FBI ever investigated those two officers.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:47 pm

King says ‘law must take its course’ after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest

Former prince released under investigation as searches continue at the Royal Lodge in Windsor

King Charles has insisted “the law must take its course” after detectives took the unprecedented step of arresting his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Police took him to Aylsham police station in Norfolk on Thursday morning for questioning about allegations he shared confidential material with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:40 pm

Trump defends tariffs in pre-midterms appearance in battleground Georgia

Visit was ostensibly to promote economy, but US president focused on repeated, unverified claims of voter fraud

Donald Trump forcefully defended his tariffs on Thursday, claiming “tariffs are my favorite word in the dictionary” and promoting their use to empower American manufacturing at an event in north-west Georgia.

“Without tariffs, this country would be in so much trouble right now,” Trump said during his remarks at Coosa Steel Corporation, a steel-processing and distribution firm in Rome, Georgia.

Published: February 20, 2026, 1:54 am

Trump says he will order the release of Pentagon files on aliens and UFOs

The president’s announcement came after predecessor Barack Obama went viral last week for saying aliens are ‘real’

Donald Trump has announced he is directing the defense department and other agencies to release whatever files they have on the search for alien life.

In a post on his social media platform, Trump said that he will ask the defense secretary and others “to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”

Published: February 20, 2026, 4:04 am

Trump labor secretary’s husband barred from department over sexual assault allegations, reports say

Shawn DeRemer, husband of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, reportedly accused by at least two female staff members

The husband of Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Donald Trump’s labor secretary, has reportedly been barred from the labor department’s headquarters in Washington after at least two female staff members accused him of sexually assaulting them, the New York Times, Politico and the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The allegations against Shawn DeRemer come as Chavez-DeRemer is under fire over allegations of misconduct.

Published: February 20, 2026, 2:45 am

Alysa Liu wins Winter Olympics gold to end US women’s 24-year figure skating drought

• 20-year-old delivers near-flawless free skate

• Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai win silver and bronze

Alysa Liu completed a stunning comeback to competitive figure skating by winning the first Olympic women’s figure skating gold medal for the United States in 24 years on Thursday night.

The 20-year-old from Clovis, California, who vanished from the sport nearly four years ago uncertain if she’d ever return, delivered a career-best long program to overtake Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai. Skating in a shimmering gold dress to Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park Suite, Liu cleanly landed all seven of her triple jumps, including three in combination, and drew a standing ovation before finishing with 226.79 points overall.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:35 pm

Six victims of California avalanche identified as part of close-knit friend group

Avalanche in Sierra Nevada killed at least eight people, including six who frequently went on ski trips together

Six of the eight people who died after a major avalanche swept through the Castle Peak area of the Sierra Nevada this week have been identified, according to multiple reports.

The identified victims – Carrie Atkin, Liz Clabaugh, Danielle Keatley, Kate Morse, Caroline Sekar and Kate Vitt – were part of a close-knit group who frequently went on ski trips together, a spokesperson for the families told the San Francisco Chronicle. The women and their families “cherished time together in the mountains”, the spokesperson said.

Published: February 20, 2026, 2:51 am

Eric Dane, Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria star, dies aged 53

Actor who played ‘McSteamy’ died on Thursday, 10 months after he revealed his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease

Eric Dane, an actor in hit shows Euphoria and Grey’s Anatomy, has died aged 53, less than a year after he publicly revealed he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

Dane died on Thursday afternoon, his representatives announced in a statement. He first revealed in April that he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a type of motor neurone disease.

Published: February 20, 2026, 2:41 am

Iran deal prospects will be clear within 10 days, Trump says as military buildup grows

Second carrier strike group heads for region as US waits for Iran to respond after talks in Geneva

Donald Trump has said it will be clear within “probably 10 days” whether he can reach a nuclear deal with Iran, as the US military buildup in the Middle East intensifies with the impending arrival of a second carrier strike group.

The US president, speaking at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington DC, insisted Iran could not have a nuclear weapon and emphasised that “bad things will happen” if the country continued “to threaten regional stability”.

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:07 am

Army veteran sues federal government after ICE detains him for three days

US citizen George Retes was held without access to family, an attorney, or information about the charges against him

An army veteran detained by federal immigration agents in southern California during his work commute in July has filed a lawsuit against the federal government.

According to the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday with the help of the nonprofit law firm Institute for Justice, George Retes was held in a detention center for three days without access to his family, an attorney, or any information about the charges against him, in what the suit argues was an unconstitutional detention.

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:03 pm

Trump news at a glance: president weighs ordering ‘bad things’ against Iran as nuclear deal sits in limbo

Experts say there are already sufficient US military assets in the Middle East to begin aerial bombing – key US politics stories from Thursday 19 February at a glance

Donald Trump has said it will be clear within “probably 10 days” whether he can reach a nuclear deal with Iran, as the US military buildup in the Middle East intensifies.

The US president, speaking at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington DC, insisted Iran could not have a nuclear weapon and emphasised that “bad things will happen” if the country continued “to threaten regional stability”.

Published: February 20, 2026, 2:00 am

Large Trump banner hung at justice department headquarters

‘Make America Safe Again’ banner put up in striking symbol of president’s control over top US law-enforcement agency

A large banner featuring Donald Trump’s face was hung on the exterior of justice department headquarters on Thursday in a physical display of the president’s efforts to exert power over the law enforcement agency that once investigated him.

While Trump banners have been hung outside other agencies across Washington, the decision to place one on the storied justice department building amounted to a striking symbol of the erosion of the department’s tradition of independence from White House control.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:01 pm

US builds website that will allow Europeans to view blocked content

Freedom.gov appears to be administered by a branch of the Department of Homeland Security

The US has built a portal that will allow Europeans to view blocked content including alleged hate speech and terrorism, according to Reuters.

The portal, “freedom.gov”, will allow worldwide users to circumvent government controls on their content. The site features a graphic of a ghostly horse galloping above the Earth, and the motto: “Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:15 pm

Casey Wasserman was the consummate LA powerbroker. Now his links to Ghislaine Maxwell threaten his legacy

Hollywood scion and talent agent exchanged sexual emails with Epstein associate

Casey Wasserman was born into Hollywood royalty, and for much of his life – until the release of the Epstein files brought his world crashing down – he appeared as formidable and untouchable as the entertainment industry moguls of old.

He wasn’t just the man charged with organizing the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles – a position he still holds, despite widespread calls for his resignation. He was a consummate power broker, someone who controlled the careers of prominent musicians, actors and athletes through the talent agency named after him, cultivated relationships in local and national politics, raised money for key election contests, endowed civic buildings and, through his family wealth, gave lavishly to social causes.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:00 pm

‘We’re no longer attracting top talent’: the brain drain killing American science

As Trump slashes science funding, young researchers flee abroad. Without solid innovation, the US could cease to have the largest biomedical ecosystem in the world

In April 2025, less than three months after Donald Trump returned to the White House, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out its latest public health alert on so-called “superbugs”, strains of bacteria resistant to antibiotics.

These drug-resistant germs, the CDC warned, are responsible for more than 3m infections in the US each year, claiming the lives of up to 48,000 Americans.

Published: February 19, 2026, 12:00 pm

How the anxiety over AI could fuel a new workers’ movement

New technology has workers spooked, but experts say it’s creating an opening for a resurgence in worker power

In 2026, it’s a scary time to work for a living.

Gone are the days of quiet quitting, the Great Resignation, and the highly visible union-organizing battles that began the decade and signaled that perhaps worker power was on the rise again in the US. Instead, much of that momentum is being crowded out of our minds by anxieties: a worsening affordability crisis, geopolitical instability and the specter of artificial intelligence looming over the workplace.

Published: February 19, 2026, 1:00 pm

‘Be the lion, feel the lion’: the gruelling life of lunar new year lion dancers

Sydney’s Qing Fong dance troupe undergoes intensive training for their busiest period of the year, when they will perform more than 100 times and earn ‘lots of pats’ from the crowd

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Drums and cymbals echo across Mingyue Lay temple’s sun-baked concrete car park. Lion heads made out of papier-mache are dotted around the lot and pairs of kids are jumping on to poles, tables or each other’s shoulders – all while connected at the hip.

It’s a sticky night in Sydney’s west, but the 33C heat doesn’t faze these lion dancers, who are gearing up for their busiest period: lunar new year. The festivities continue well past the day itself, with more than 100 performances across three weeks. On the eve of lunar new year, the studio will start their performance at the temple in Bonnyrigg at 9pm and finish well past midnight.

Above: Team instructor Jenny Cao and Long Huynh outside the hall
Below: Costumes wait to be put on for dance rehearsals

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:00 pm

‘We’re not hippies’: why these Iowa farmers swapped pigs for mushrooms

Faaborgs rail against oppressive industrial agricultural system with unexpected evolution into indie artisan food firm

As a sixth-generation Iowa farmer, Tanner Faaborg is all too aware that agricultural traditions are hard to shake. So when he set in motion plans to change his family’s farm from a livestock operation housing more than 8,000 pigs each year to one that grows lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms, he knew some of his peers might laugh at him. He just did not necessarily expect his brother to be chief among them.

“My older brother has worked with pigs his entire adult life, managing about 70,000 of them across five counties,” Faaborg says. “But we got to a point where he went from laughing at me to saying: well, I guess maybe I’ll quit my job and help you out.”

Published: February 19, 2026, 12:45 pm

Ben Jennings on the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor – cartoon

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Published: February 19, 2026, 6:24 pm

Trump’s bid to name Penn Station after himself looks like a presidential shakedown | Mohamad Bazzi

The US president’s relentless self-aggrandizement spree continues amid hypocrisy and shifting explanations

As a real estate developer, Donald Trump built his empire on ostentatious displays of wealth, substantial tax breaks – and lots of free publicity. As president, he has deployed the power of the state to expand his personal brand, adding his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the US Institute of Peace, a class of new navy warships, and even investment accounts for millions of children.

Trump is now eyeing yet more grandiose targets in his self-aggrandizement spree. He wants Congress to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington Dulles international airport in his honor. But there’s a catch: Trump reportedly told Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, that he would unfreeze billions of dollars in federal funding for a major infrastructure project in the north-east – if Schumer supported renaming the two sites.

Mohamad Bazzi is director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies, and a journalism professor, at New York University

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:00 am

Stripped of finery, detained by police as an ordinary citizen: now Andrew enters a new era – and Britain too | Simon Jenkins

What happens next hardly matters: the mystique and awe surrounding the royals had been shattered. The former prince’s arrest must change everything

The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is a seismic moment for the royal family as well as for himself. On one hand, it is hard to believe any greater harm can befall the family after weeks of drip-feed from the US Department of Justice’s Epstein files. On the other, a royal arrest of this sort is unprecedented. Enough is already in the public domain to indicate that police believe that there must be a case to answer to the charge of misconduct in public office.

King Charles, who apparently was not warned in advance that his brother was to be arrested, has been scrupulous in his response. “The law must take its course,” he said, offering prosecutors “full and wholehearted support and cooperation”. Whatever happens now, a line has been crossed in the life of the nation. A once exalted royal, facing serious judicial investigation by authorities acting on behalf of the citizenry. Stripped of status and finery, he faces the spotlight as would any other inhabitant of these isles. One cannot know the outcome, but just this arrest feels like a significant moment.

Published: February 19, 2026, 1:56 pm

The US is dragging Europe back to the days of white supremacism. Our leaders are playing along | Shada Islam

People like me were targets of the Islamophobia that gripped the west after the US-led ‘war on terror’. Now I fear a chilling sequel is on the way

Twenty-five years ago, George W Bush persuaded European leaders to back his “war on terror”. That disastrous project cost millions of lives and caused mass displacement of people from across the Middle East. It normalised racism and hatred for Muslims, refugees and racialised minorities in the US and Europe. I fear Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, with its calls to defend white, western, Christian civilisation against supposedly contaminating racialised migrants – and the standing ovation he received from European elites – may mark a chilling sequel.

Rubio’s language of a shared and superior American and European civilisation differs from that of his bosses, Donald Trump and JD Vance. His tone is more emollient but his outreach is conspiratorial. Rubio talks of migration and identity and civilisational anxiety, rather than terrorism and hard security threats as Bush once did. In his Munich speech, Rubio flattered Europeans about the continent’s colonial past. He denied preaching a message of xenophobia or hate, and instead framed his call to defend national borders as entirely respectable, dutiful and a “fundamental act of sovereignty”.

Shada Islam is a Brussels-based commentator on EU affairs. She runs New Horizons Project, a strategy, analysis and advisory company

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Published: February 19, 2026, 5:00 am

The Guardian view on the royals and the law: no more managed disgrace | Editorial

The police investigation into the king’s brother forces Britain to confront whether privilege can coexist with democratic scrutiny and the rule of law

The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor the king’s brother, should be the moment deference ends and accountability begins – a correction long overdue. For more than 15 years, allegations surrounding Mr Mountbatten-Windsor were managed away by silence, an out-of-court settlement and his withdrawal from royal duties. In short, his behaviour was viewed as an image problem to be handled privately. That era now looks to be over.

That the eighth in line to the throne was sitting in a police cell on his 66th birthday shows how far he has fallen. The formal investigation means that the question is no longer about protecting the monarchy but one of what happened, and who might be responsible for unlawful acts. Mr Mountbatten-Windsor’s descent into ignominy has unfolded slowly but inexorably. His stupidity and arrogance led him to believe that he could talk his way out of his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Instead, he faces a legal and constitutional reckoning.

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:06 pm

The Guardian view on Merz and Meloni: an emerging Berlin-Rome axis is threatening the EU’s green deal

The deregulation agenda being pushed by Germany’s chancellor and Italy’s prime minister is economically and ethically flawed

When the European Union launched its green deal in 2019, putting into law the goal of climate neutrality by the middle of the century, it showed strategic foresight as well as global leadership. Russia’s war in Ukraine has starkly underlined the extent to which the continent’s energy security – and its future prosperity – is dependent on the transition away from fossil fuels. Lately, however, EU leaders’ environmental approach appears to be echoing the youthful St Augustine’s plea on chastity: make us greener, but not yet.

The recent European Industry Summit in Antwerp made unusually big headlines thanks to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s xenophobic outburst over immigration. But it was also notable for fierce attacks on one of the most important pillars of EU environmental policy. The bloc’s emissions trading system (ETS) – which makes polluters pay for the C02 they emit – has achieved dramatic results in driving down overall emissions since 2005 and encouraging green innovation. Worryingly, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, appeared to sympathise with demands from Sir Jim and other CEOs for a radical relaxation of the rules.

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:05 pm

USA roar back from brink to beat Canada in overtime and claim Olympic women’s ice hockey gold

• Canadians led 1-0 in regulation before late US goal

• Megan Keller clinches title with overtime winner

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results

Rescued from the brink of defeat by a deft touch from their captain in her final Olympics, the US beat Canada in Milan on Thursday to claim the women’s ice hockey gold medal.

Hilary Knight got engaged this week to the American speed skater, Brittany Bowe, and the 36-year-old now has another reason to celebrate. Out-fought and out-thought by their great rivals for much of this contest, the Americans were poised to lose to a team they had thumped 5-0 in the preliminary round only nine days earlier.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:23 pm

Jordan Stolz’s bid for four speed-skating golds crumbles in 1500m as Ning Zhongyan shines

• American had been hoping for clean sweep in Milan

• Chinese skater sets Olympic record in shock win

On an afternoon when the Olympic record kept falling, Jordan Stolz skated fast enough to win the gold at any other Winter Games. Just not this one.

The 21-year-old American was foiled in his bid for a third gold medal in eight days on Thursday, winning silver in the 1500m in a time of 1:42.75 after lowering the Olympic marks in the 1000m last Wednesday and the 500m on Saturday and threatening to become only the second American to win more than two golds in any sport at a single Winter Games.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:21 pm

‘An Olympic miracle’: twist in Conan Doyle’s skimo tale as Russian snares silver

• Nikita Filippov wins silver as neutral in sport’s debut

• Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton wins women’s sprint

We can partly thank Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for popularising the Winter Olympics’ newest sport, which made its debut amid an unrelenting snowstorm, a touch of mayhem and no little controversy in Bormio.

In 1894, the year after he had killed off Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls, Conan Doyle wrote about his own perilous 15-mile journey across the 8,000-feet high Maienfelder Furka Pass one that involved skiing and mountaineering.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:14 pm

Indiana approves plan to lure Bears away from Chicago

• Team have been in Chicago since 1921

• Indiana committed to helping build new stadium

The Chicago Bears’ potential move to Indiana took another step forward on Thursday when a key committee approved a plan to create an agency that would help get a stadium built.

The Indiana House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee passed a bill establishing a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a stadium by a 24-0 margin. The Bears are looking at a tract of land near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana.

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:51 pm

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Tottenham’s Tudor age begins with a north London derby, Guardiola ponders Haaland’s role and Wirtz has a chance to flummox Forest

Aston Villa, third in the Premier League, chasing Champions League qualification and the Europa League title, will be expected to beat Leeds on home soil. But Unai Emery’s side have struggled of late in games where the pressure is on and the onus is upon them to be the aggressor. After exiting the FA Cup to Newcastle, Marco Bizot’s moment of madness all but ending their hopes of reaching the fifth round, it is back to league duty. They eked out an ugly win over Brighton, just the kind of result they would be happy with this weekend, but recently they also lost at home to 10-man Brentford and to Everton. Before that they drew at lowly Crystal Palace, though Oliver Glasner’s side have been a bogey team for Villa. This week Bizot apologised for his rush of blood. Which Villa will turn up against Leeds? Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Leeds, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Brentford v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Chelsea v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Bournemouth, Saturday 5.30pm

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:01 am

‘That was fun’: Keely Hodgkinson smashes world record set on day she was born

• Olympic champion breaks indoor 800m mark in France

• Former record set 24 years ago on Hodgkinson’s birthday

Britain’s Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson obliterated the world indoor 800m record, which has stood since 2002, by nearly a second in a stunning performance in Liévin.

Hodgkinson had made no secret that she believed the record of 1min 55.82sec, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak on the same day Hodgkinson was born – 3 March 2002 – was there for the taking after a prep race at the British championships last week.

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:09 pm

Domenicali pleads for calm over fears new rules will wreck Formula One

• F1 chief executive ‘is listening to drivers’ complaints’

• He admits the rules could change if racing isn’t exciting

Stefano Domenicali, the chief executive of Formula One, has issued an urgent plea for calm after the damning driver criticism of the sport’s new regulations that has emerged during pre-season testing. But the Italian conceded that F1 is prepared to intervene and enforce changes should the racing prove disappointing.

There has been a clamour of discontent over how the new regulations will play out, particularly the role of energy management rather than driving flat-out. Not least from the four-time champion Max Verstappen, who dismissed the new rules as being “anti-racing” and insinuated that he might leave F1 if he no longer enjoyed driving the new cars.

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:01 am

MLBPA replaces chief Tony Clark after inappropriate relationship with sister-in-law

• Bruce Meyer promoted to interim executive director

• New labor deal negotiations with owners looming

Bruce Meyer was promoted to interim executive director of the baseball players’ association on Wednesday, a day after Tony Clark’s forced resignation. It was a move for continuity ahead of the likely start in April of what figures to be contentious collective bargaining with team owners.

Clark is a former All-Star first baseman who had headed the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) since 2013. He resigned on Tuesday, just months ahead of the expected start of bargaining for a new labor contract. The current deal expires on 1 December.

Published: February 19, 2026, 12:56 pm

Is the World Cup bump real? MLS is going to find out

MLS stakeholders want to turn the interest in this summer’s North American World Cup into ‘rocket fuel’ for the league. Are those realistic expectations?

In 1988, a full eight years before Major League Soccer debuted, it got its first “World Cup bump”.

Fifa had just awarded the 1994 World Cup to the United States, but there was a stipulation. The US could host the tournament, but only if there was a competitive club league in place by the time it rolled around, something that hadn’t been true since the North American Soccer League collapsed in 1985. Tournament organisers missed that 1994 deadline, but two years later, MLS became a reality. Thirty years on, it is still here.

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:00 am

I went back to my alma mater and saw how women’s sports have changed

There’s a basketball renaissance emerging at Columbia, and Megan Griffith’s women are leading it

I’ve been going to Columbia basketball games since I was an undergraduate in the 1960s. As a junior, I did some play-by-play for WKCR, the student-run radio station. There was a time long ago when I went to almost every Lions home game. I’m talking about the men. There wasn’t a women’s basketball team until 1984. For the past few decades, I’ve watched the men play once a year.

When I enrolled at Columbia in September 1963, the Lions’ home games were played in University Hall – an antiquated gym with structural columns that impeded fans’ views and looked as though it had been built during the Age of Pericles. Columbia had suffered through six straight losing seasons. Two more followed.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. The audio version of his memoir – My Mother And Me – was recently released. The reading is by Hauser’s good friend, Jim Lampley. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:00 am

Football Daily | Arsenal don’t just drop points, they perform theatrical acts of self-sabotage

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Top of the league, Wembley trip booked, sweeping through Europe, and blessed with a cushty FA Cup draw – it’s fair to say the Arsenal garden is in full, radiant bloom. At least, it was until they travelled to a wet and windy Molineux to play a match the Premier League surreptitiously slipped into the schedule like a worm tablet hidden in a dog’s dinner. In Wolves, Mikel Arteta’s side were facing a team who are not only the worst in the top flight by some distance, but one who have only recently begun battling to avoid going down as the most awful of all time. Having taken a two-goal lead, the only logical question centred around how many more Arsenal would spank past their hapless hosts. Instead, logic gave way to the objective hilarity of a collective on and off-field meltdown as the Gunners managed to turn what should have been a stroll into an inexplicable 2-2 draw.

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Published: February 19, 2026, 4:56 pm

CDC vaccine panel meeting postponed amid RFK Jr bid to reshape policy

Postponement of ACIP meeting this month comes as US pediatricians challenge committee’s legitimacy in court

A meeting of the US vaccine advisory panel that had been planned for later this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reportedly been postponed amid legal challenges the panel is facing over its validity.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which provides guidance on who should receive specific vaccines, had originally been set to convene from 25 to 27 February, according to the CDC’s website.

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:57 pm

Ukraine war briefing: EU eager for membership talks with Kyiv to begin ‘as soon as possible’

European Council president António Costa stops short of setting a date, but says we ‘cannot lose the momentum.’ What we know on day 1,458

The European Union is eager to begin Ukraine’s EU membership talks “as soon as possible”, European Council president António Costa has said, although he stopped short of setting a date. The US plan for an end to the war in Ukraine calls for Kyiv’s EU accession by January 2027, though experts generally consider that date highly unrealistic. “I cannot say if it’s in 2027 or even in 2026 or later, but what is important is we cannot lose the momentum,” Costa told reporters during a visit to Oslo.

The Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-eastern Ukraine is operating on its sole remaining outside power line after losing a backup line more than a week ago, the UN’s nuclear watchdog said on Thursday. In a statement, Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the Ferrosplavna-1 electric line went down on 10 February “reportedly as a result of military activity”. The plant, Europe’s largest with six reactors, was now operating with outside power only from the Dniprovska power line, he said.

More than 1,000 Kenyans have been lured to fight for Russia in its war with Ukraine, according to an intelligence report to the Kenyan parliament that highlights the scale of a Russian operation taking African men to the frontline. The majority leader of Kenya’s national assembly, Kimani Ichung’wah, said “rogue recruitment agencies and individuals in Kenya” were continuing to send Kenyan nationals to fight in the conflict. The figure of more than 1,000 individuals is a significant increase on the number given in a statement by Kenya’s foreign affairs ministry in November, which said that more than 200 Kenyans had travelled to fight in the war.

Poland’s defence minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has told the AFP news agency that European allies – especially Italy, France and Spain – need to invest more in their defence spending. “The more Europe invests, the more seriously and respectfully America will treat us in these areas,” he said. Poland, which borders Russia and its close ally Belarus, has heavily ramped up its defence spending since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden has announced 12.9bn kronor ($1.4bn) in military aid for Ukraine, focused primarily on air defence capabilities. Defence minister Pal Jonson said that the military aid package was “the third largest so far that Sweden has delivered to Ukraine.”

Belarus, a close ally of Russia rarely invited to international gatherings, has said it had intended to attend the inaugural meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, but failed to receive the necessary visas. Belarus has long been subject to western sanctions over its human rights record and measures were intensified after president Alexander Lukashenko allowed his country’s territory to be used for Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Foreign minister Maxim Ryzhenkov had been due to attend the meeting in Washington, his ministry said, adding “what kind of peace and what kind of sequence of steps are we talking about if the organisers cannot even complete basic formalities for us to take part?”

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:37 am

Climber convicted of manslaughter after leaving girlfriend on Austria’s highest peak to get help

The court in Innsbruck handed Thomas P a five-month suspended prison sentence and a €9,400 fine over death of woman named as Kerstin G

An Austrian court has found a 37-year-old amateur mountaineer guilty of manslaughter over his girlfriend’s death near Austria’s highest summit, after he left her to fetch help when she could not go on.

The case is unusual because while climbing accidents are common, prosecutions over them are rare.

Published: February 20, 2026, 1:30 am

Roblox sued by Los Angeles over claims platform ‘makes children easy prey for pedophiles’

LA County says the gaming company does not carry out adequate moderation and its age-verification systems are not fit for purpose, which Roblox denies

Officials in Los Angeles have said they are suing Roblox, alleging the popular online platform exposes children to sexual content, exploitation and online predators.

In a lawsuit, Los Angeles County said the company does not carry out adequate moderation and its age-verification systems are not fit for purpose.

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:31 am

Bolivia’s ex-leader Evo Morales reappears after months-long unexplained absence

Long-serving socialist former leader Evo Morales has reappeared in his political stronghold after almost seven weeks of unexplained absence

Bolivia’s long-serving socialist former leader, Evo Morales, reappeared on Thursday in his political stronghold of the tropics after almost seven weeks of unexplained absence, endorsing candidates for upcoming regional elections and quieting rumours he had fled the country in the wake of the US seizure of his ally, Venezuela’s ex-president Nicolás Maduro.

The weeks of hand-wringing over Morales’ fate showed how little the Andean country knows about what’s happening in the remote Chapare region, where the former president has spent the past year evading an arrest warrant on human trafficking charges, and how vulnerable it is to fears about US president Donald Trump’s potential future foreign escapades.

Published: February 20, 2026, 4:10 am

Man allegedly assaulted by Shia LaBeouf in New Orleans wants to see hate crime charges

Jeffrey Damnit says actor punched him and second man on Tuesday, calling both ‘faggot’ repeatedly

One of the men whom Shia LaBeouf allegedly battered and insulted with a homophobic slur on Mardi Gras morning in New Orleans on Tuesday, leading to his arrest, would like to see the actor face hate crime charges.

Jeffrey Damnit, who dresses in drag and was in makeup at the time of the encounter with LaBeouf, said on Thursday that the behavior attributed to the Transformers film franchise star was “a complete slap in the face to any alternative-culture person”.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:54 pm

Trump changed mind on Chagos deal ‘after UK blocked use of Diego Garcia for Iran strikes’

US president links deal with military strikes against Iran in connection with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions

Donald Trump changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran, the Guardian has been told.

In his latest change of heart on the deal, the US president said on social media that Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for continued use by the UK and US of their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:53 pm

Wastewater testing reveals high levels of cocaine in Nantucket, Massachusetts

Up to three times national average of metabolite produced by human use of drug was found in town’s wastewater

Tests on wastewater in an upscale Massachusetts ocean resort town have revealed unexpectedly high levels of cocaine – up to three times the national average.

Officials in the town of Nantucket on the eponymous island off Cape Cod began testing its wastewater last summer “to monitor high-risk substances and opioids in the community”.

Published: February 19, 2026, 4:14 pm

The unbearable experience of walking in a heatwave of the future – video

Around the world, global heating is already causing more frequent heatwaves that last longer and bring more heat. Guardian Australia's Graham Readfearn has put his body to the test in an experiment see what effects the heatwaves of the future will have on humans. At the University of Sydney, he steps into a climate chamber that simulates the increased temperatures and humidity predicted in a rapidly warming climate. 'The sweat is stinging my eyes,' he says. 'It's 43C and the air is sticky and humid. It's getting hard to breath.'

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:15 pm

Trump order seeks to protect weedkiller at center of barrage of lawsuits

President’s move, which also seeks ‘immunity’ for makers, faces backlash from health advocates and Maha coalition

Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting production of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which some bodies and studies have linked to cancer and which are the subject of widespread US litigation.

The president’s move, which also seeks to provide “immunity” for makers of the herbicides, was strongly criticized by health and environmental advocates including some figures in the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) coalition.

This story is co-published with the New Lede, a journalism project of the Environmental Working Group

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:32 pm

‘There has to be glitter’: can the Rio carnival give up its love of beach-polluting microplastics?

A bill banning the sale and use of plastic and metallic glitter has yet to go through in Brazil as the capital’s sandy shores bear cost of carnival’s shine

Whether it is embellishing elaborate costumes, delicately applied as eye makeup, or smeared across bare skin, glitter is everywhere at Rio de Janeiro’s carnival in Brazil. The world’s largest party, which ended on Wednesday, leaves a trail of sparkles in its wake.

At one bloco last weekend, a huge sound truck and dancers in leopard print led thousands of revellers down the promenade at Flamengo beach. Among them was Bruno Fernandes, who had jazzed up an otherwise minimalist outfit of navy swimming briefs by smearing silver glitter over his body.

Published: February 19, 2026, 12:01 pm

‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics

Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?

Like many of us who are mindful of our plastic consumption, Beth Gardiner would take her own bags to the supermarket and be annoyed whenever she forgot to do so. Out without her refillable bottle, she would avoid buying bottled water. “Here I am, in my own little life, worrying about that and trying to use less plastic,” she says. Then she read an article in this newspaper, just over eight years ago, and discovered that fossil fuel companies had ploughed more than $180bn (£130bn) into plastic plants in the US since 2010. “It was a kick in the teeth,” says Gardiner. “You’re telling me that while I am beating myself up because I forgot to bring my water bottle, all these huge oil companies are pouring billions …” She looks appalled. “It was just such a shock.”

Two months before that piece was published, a photograph of a seahorse clinging to a plastic cotton bud had gone viral; two years before that England followed Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and introduced a charge for carrier bags. “I was one of so many people who were trying to use less plastic – and it just felt like such a moment of revelation: these companies are, on the contrary, increasing production and wanting to push [plastic use] up and up.” Then, says Gardiner, as she started researching her book Plastic Inc: Big Oil, Big Money and the Plan to Trash our Future, “it only becomes more shocking.”

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:00 am

Bernie Sanders rails against billionaire ‘greed’ amid California tax battle

In a fiery speech in Los Angeles, the Vermont senator criticizes ‘grotesque’ levels of economic inequality

Billionaires are “treading on very, very thin ice,” Bernie Sanders warned on Wednesday during a fiery speech in Los Angeles, imploring California voters to fight “grotesque” levels of economic inequality by approving a proposed tax on the state’s richest residents.

The independent Vermont senator railed against the “greed”, “arrogance” and “moral turpitude” of the nation’s “ruling class”, calling it “fairly disgusting” that some ultra-wealthy tech leaders have fled California – or are threatening to do so, if the proposed wealth tax becomes law.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:17 am

West Virginia sues Apple over child sex abuse material stored and shared on iCloud

Attorney general JB McCuskey, a Republican, calls case the first of its kind by a government agency against company

West Virginia’s attorney general filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing Apple of allowing its iCloud service to become a vehicle for distributing child sexual abuse material.

The state alleges that the company facilitated the spread of child sexual abuse material by declining to deploy tools that scan photos and videos and detect such material in iCloud users’ collections.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:14 pm

New York governor pulls robotaxi expansion proposal for cities outside Big Apple

Kathy Hochul backed away from allowing robotaxi services in smaller cities, though Waymo still plans to move ahead in New York City

New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, has pulled her proposal to allow commercial robotaxi services in smaller cities outside New York City, a spokesperson for the governor said on Thursday.

“Based on conversations with stakeholders, including in the legislature, it was clear that the support was not there to advance this proposal,” the spokesperson said.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:24 pm

What’s next for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson?

Former duchess has stood by the former prince through waves of allegations and has yet to comment on his arrest

While the spotlight has been on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his arrest has prompted questions about what is next for his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.

Ferguson, known by the tabloids as Fergie, married the then prince Andrew in 1986 and was divorced from him 10 years later after an alleged affair with an American financial adviser. It was one of multiple scandals in the 1990s and 2000s involving the former duchess, who was widely considered an embarrassment to the royal family.

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:39 pm

French prosecutor seeks murder charges over killing of far-right activist

Political tensions rise after fatal attack at protest in Lyon as Emmanuel Macron hits out over remarks by Italian PM

A French prosecutor is seeking murder charges against seven suspects in the fatal beating of a far-right activist that has fuelled political anger beyond France’s borders, prompting Emmanuel Macron to tell Italy’s Giorgia Meloni to keep out of French affairs.

Quentin Deranque, 23, died from head injuries after being attacked by at least six people on the sidelines of a far-right protest in Lyon on 12 February. Most of the 11 suspects who have been detained are from far-left movements.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:37 pm

RSF siege of El Fasher in Sudan has ‘hallmarks of genocide’, UN mission finds

Report details harrowing 18-month occupation of North Darfur capital, showing destruction aimed at ethnic communities

The siege and capture of the Sudanese city of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group last October bore “the hallmarks of genocide”, a UN-mandated fact-finding mission has said.

In a report detailing the harrowing 18-month occupation of the capital of North Darfur, investigators concluded that the RSF and allied militias deliberately inflicted conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Zaghawa and Fur ethnic communities.

Published: February 19, 2026, 5:59 pm

Simulations shed light on how snowman-shaped body in Kuiper belt may have formed

Research adds weight to theory Arrokoth’s two lobes produced by gravitational collapse – and reveals process

It is the most distant and primitive object ever visited by a spacecraft from Earth: now researchers say they have fresh insights into how the ultra-red, 4bn-year-old body known as Arrokoth came to have its distinctive snowman-like shape.

Arrokoth sits in the Kuiper belt, a vast, thick ring of icy objects that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune. This region of space is home to most of the known dwarf planets as well as comets and small, solid rubble heaps called planetesimals – the building blocks of planets.

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:00 pm

‘Balding, rawhide-lean, just under six feet tall’: the real life soldier behind Robert Duvall’s Apocalypse Now role

‘Air cavalry’ commander John B Stockton was the inspiration behind Duvall’s napalm-sniffing Lt Col Kilgore in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war epic

The actor Robert Duvall, who died this week, is known for many memorable movie roles, but none so much as his cameo as the Stetson-wearing Lt Col Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. In Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam war epic Duvall plays the commander of a helicopter squadron who flies into battle with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries blaring from loudspeakers and utters the immortal line: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

Duvall’s scene-stealing portrayal earned him Bafta and Golden Globe awards for best supporting actor as well as an Oscar nomination in that category. What is less well known is that his character was based on a real officer who fought in Vietnam. Lt Col John B Stockton was hard to miss. Like Duvall in the movie, he wore a black Stetson and spurs on his boots. He carried his papers in leather saddlebags and even had his unit’s mascot, a mule called Maggie, smuggled into Vietnam despite a strict “no pets” policy. And he really did play Wagner from side-mounted speakers fixed to his helicopter when going into action.

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:34 am

Mitski: Nothing’s About to Happen to Me review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

(Dead Oceans)
Whether retreating from fame or heartbreak, the US musician writes gorgeous songs about the appeal of disconnection, flecked with horror and humour

Last month, Mitski released Where’s My Phone?, the first single from her eighth album Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. Its raging alt-rock is a more robust take on the lo-fi fuzz of her third album Bury Me at Makeout Creek, while UK listeners might detect a certain Britpoppy swing about its rhythm, and it ends with a guitar solo so jarringly distorted it sounds as if something is wrong with the stream. It was accompanied by a video that featured the singer as a headscarf-sporting rural mother, trying to protect her family from the attentions of the outside world with increasing violence: a milkman gets attacked, her daughter’s potential suitor is beaten bloody. It’s both funny and unsettling: there are references to Rapunzel, Grey Gardens, Grant Wood’s American Gothic and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle – a litany of the wilfully isolated.

The visuals set the tone for the rest of Nothing’s About to Happen to Me, an album on which you’re never far from its author expressing a longing to disappear; to be, as she puts it on Instead of Here, “where nobody can reach”. On opener In a Lake, she extols moving to the city from a small town, not in search of bright lights and excitement, but obscurity, a means of obliterating your own history: “Some days you just go the long way to stay off memory lane.” On I’ll Change for You, she hymns bars – “such magic places” – precisely because of their anonymity: “You can be with other people without having anyone at all.” And on Rules, she’ll “get a new haircut … be somebody else”. All this is set to beautifully crafted music that splits the difference between alt-rock, country-infused acoustic lamentation and grander ambition: the brilliance of Rules lies in the disparity between the hopelessness of its lyric and the thickly orchestrated, perky, early 70s easy listening backing.

Published: February 19, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘A love letter to Beirut’: Lana Daher on sifting 20,000 sources and 70 years of film to make Do You Love Me

Remembering and documentation are radical acts in Lebanon, a country with a tumultuous history and no national archive. Daher’s effervescent cultural collage is a direct challenge to collective amnesia

At one point in Lana Daher’s film Do You Love Me, a woman questions the repeated advice of those around her to simply forget Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. Why does she insist on “digging into the past”, especially when “this war was no worse than the others”? Yet it is precisely her act of remembering – of knowing that she “did not dream” the actuality of war – that prompts her to dig “into the present”.

The Lebanese director’s debut feature is itself a substantive feat of excavation, with more than 20,000 sources consulted in collaboration with the editor, Qutaiba Barhamji (who worked on The Voice of Hind Rajab), to unearth the footage that would produce this 76-minute film. It is substantive also in the sense that this work was done in relation to a country that does not have a national archive.

Published: February 19, 2026, 1:47 pm

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You review – Rose Byrne is tremendous as therapist in meltdown in pitch-black horror-comedy

Byrne delivers a barnstorming performance as a shrink – counselled by an impatient Conan O’Brien – being pushed to the edge by stress of parenting

Here is a psychological horror-comedy of postnatal depression and lonely parental stress, like a flip-side to Eraserhead or Rosemary’s Baby; it’s a scary movie with a heroine shot almost solely in looming closeup – but instead of supernatural apparitions, there are simply the banal problems of childcare and no time to deal with them. It’s also a film about therapy and transference when there’s nothing left to transfer. Mary Bronstein is its writer-director, and her film-maker husband Ronald Bronstein serves as producer – as does Josh Safdie, whose influence, through movies such as Uncut Gems and Marty Supreme, can perhaps be detected in the sprint towards a nervous breakdown.

Rose Byrne delivers a barnstormer as Linda, a psychotherapist whose husband is away, leaving her to deal with a sick infant daughter whose face is not shown until the very end, indicating perhaps the way in which the little girl’s identity is simply that of a gigantically blank all-pervasive problem to be managed. The girl is intubated via a feeding machine that must be carted around with her, especially to the day-care hospital whose brusque doctor in charge (played by Mary Bronstein in cameo) supervises group therapy sessions that blandly reassure the parents present that all this is not their fault, while curtly reprimanding Linda for her failure to turn up to appointments and to discuss her daughter’s failure to gain the weight necessary for the tube to be removed.

Published: February 19, 2026, 1:00 pm

From Stranger Things to Killing Eve: why TV shows should only be one season long

Furious fans, bloated storylines and television seemingly made only to sell merch … it’s time to stop dragging series out. Most of them deserve no more than one outing

Though it aired almost two months ago, fans are still angry about the Stranger Things finale.

So disappointing was the wrap to the five-season sci-fi that its cast are still having to deny that there is an upcoming secret final episode. I was not remotely disappointed, however. I thought the show ended perfectly: when I stopped watching it after season one, episode eight.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:54 am

Sinners star Miles Caton: ‘I didn’t know how much I would be in the film … it might have scared me’

The actor and musician’s first film role was the musical prodigy in the surprise hit horror. Now he’s up for a Bafta and about to perform live at the Oscars – and it’s all still sinking in

It’s lunchtime in New York City, and Miles Caton is still in bed. That morning, the 20-year-old star of Sinners set his alarm for 8.30am so he could watch the Oscar nominations live. “As soon as I woke up, I went straight to YouTube,” he says, where he learned Sinners had been nominated for 16 Academy Awards, more than any other film in Oscars history. Unsurprisingly, his phone has been blowing up: he’s been so busy responding to messages, he’s yet to get out of bed.

A southern gothic horror musical set in the 1930s, about the bloodsucking of Black culture, Sinners was the unexpected box office smash of 2025, earning $368m in ticket sales globally. The film co-stars Michael B Jordan and comes from the imagination of Ryan Coogler, the writer-director behind Marvel’s Black Panther franchise and the Rocky reboot, Creed. “I watched Black Panther for the first time when I was 12 years old,” says Caton, who remembers going to the cinema to see the director’s Afrofuturist superhero movie with his whole family. “It was ‘Wakanda Forever!’ We was putting our fist up!” he says, motioning a Black power fist at the screen. “To me, a Ryan Coogler film was culture,” he says.

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:00 am

Johann Ludwig Bach: The Leipzig Cantatas album review – this distant cousin’s music is a remarkable discovery

Capella Sollertia/Soller
(Ricercar)
This is the premiere recording of sacred cantatas by JL Bach: works preserved due to his distant cousin, JS Bach, copying them for performance. Conductor Johanna Soller brings them to sensitive and vivid life

We’ll probably never know why Johann Sebastian Bach broke off his prodigious flow of sacred cantatas in 1726 to instead perform a set of 18 by a distant third cousin, but as this revelatory four-disc set demonstrates, we should be glad he did.

Johann Ludwig Bach, born near Eisenach in 1677, became cantor and later kapellmeister in Meiningen, dying there in 1731. His music shows an inspirational gift for melody, a sensitivity to text and a knack for turning Lutheran doctrinal poetry into first-rate music drama. How JSB got his hands on JLB’s music is unclear – there’s no evidence the two ever met – but JSB’s meticulous copying out of his relative’s work has preserved a treasure trove of music that might otherwise have been lost to the sands of time.

Published: February 19, 2026, 3:05 pm

Old Songs by Amy Jeffs and Gwen Burns review – ancient tales of murder, maidens and magic

These interconnected short stories of love and death, inspired by traditional ballads from the British Isles, are narrated with immediacy and warmth

In the old Scottish ballad, Tam Lin, a girl named Janet is warned by her family not to go near the well at Carterhaugh. There lurks an elfin knight who will take the virginity of any golden-haired maiden who passes through. The next day Janet, who is possessed of golden hair and a rebellious spirit, sets off for Carterhaugh. At the well, she picks a double rose which summons Tam Lin. Janet visits him daily and she learns how he was stolen by the Fairy Queen who cursed him to remain in Elfland as her vassal. Months later she realises she is with child. Refusing to forsake her lover, she hatches a bold and dangerous plan to free him from the curse.

This is just one of the ancient tales featured in Old Songs, a treasure trove of short stories inspired by traditional ballads from the British Isles. Stretching from the Classical period and the early 20th century, these richly imagined stories feature sibling murder, infanticide, kidnapping, abandonment and a man who is turned into a worm by a witch. “Not all the stories are happy and that is the way of the world,” notes author Amy Jeffs in the foreword.

Published: February 19, 2026, 3:00 pm

The Last of Earth by Deepa Anappara review – into Tibet’s ‘Forbidden Kingdom’

The follow-up to Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line explores the history of colonial exploration through a perilous 19th-century odyssey

With her peripatetic and philosophical second novel, Deepa Anappara travels into uncharted territory. Her dazzling 2020 debut, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, was part caper and part social satire, set in an Indian shantytown. In The Last of Earth, she points her writerly compass towards the mountains of mid-19th-century Tibet – a region then closed off to European imperialists – to meditate on the chequered history of colonial exploration, cartography and the impermanence of human existence.

“It’s in the nature of white men to believe they own the world, that no door should be shut to them.” For years, the British train, coax and bribe Indians to cross over, conducting surveying expeditions on their behalf; they also venture into the “Forbidden Kingdom of Tibet” in thinly veiled disguises. Intricately researched and meticulously plotted, this immersive novel is told through the alternating perspectives of two protagonists. Balram is an Indian schoolteacher and surveyor-spy who plays guide to an English captain, clumsily dressed as a monk and intent on being the first man to personally chart the route of the revered river Tsangpo and discover where it meets the sea. Meanwhile Katherine, of part Indian heritage, is on a mission to become the first European woman to reach Lhasa and set eyes on the Potala Palace after being denied membership of the all-male Royal Geographical Society in London.

The Last of Earth by Deepa Anappara is published by Oneworld (£14.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:00 am

Trip to the Moon by John Yorke review – a storytelling handbook in dire need of an edit

A producer shares his tips for tight storylines, but they’re marred by verbal incontinence and hyperbole

Creative writing handbooks are almost an industry in themselves: the fledgling author, dramatist or screenwriter can choose from hundreds of titles, all offering to unlock the secrets of storytelling. These books are of limited utility for literary fiction, where plot is secondary, but if you’re writing for the screen or stage, or working on genre fiction, they can be helpful. Commercial, plot-driven storytelling is, this is an inherently formulaic business, and a working knowledge of narrative structure is a crucial foundation for an aspiring writer.

In his bestselling 2014 treatise on the mechanics of narrative, Into the Woods, John Yorke demonstrated the uncanny prevalence of five-act structure (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement) in many popular movies, plays and television dramas. He reprises this theme in his new book, which starts with a lengthy disquisition on plot architecture. The five-act framework, Yorke explains, is elegantly conducive to an emotionally compelling journey, with the protagonist typically undergoing a transformative revelation at the story’s mid-point. He illustrates this with reference to hit TV programmes such as I May Destroy You, and films including Star Wars and Terminator 2.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:00 am

Mario Tennis Fever review – serving up banana peel-laced multiplayer chaos

Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo
This ruthlessly competitive game will have everyone from your granny to semi-pros trying to set fire to their opponent’s side of the court with powered-up ‘fever rackets’

Tennis has been a regular hobby of Mario’s for the past 30 years, beginning with the headache-inducing Mario’s Tennis on the Virtual Boy and most recently resurfacing as the surprisingly complex Mario Tennis Aces on the Switch. Now he’s back in his whites (and reds) with a charming new take on the sport that dials back the difficulty level and adds lots of fun modes and features, aiming to appease complete newcomers and Djokovic-esque veterans.

At first, the range of options is almost bewildering. You can opt to play in one-off matches with up to three other players or NPCs, or enter a more structured tournament of singles or doubles play. Then there’s the extremely fun Mix It Up, which offers a range of fun tennis derivatives. These include Forest Court where piranha plants appear and gobble any balls that get close, and Pinball where bumpers and barriers pop up as you play. Trial Towers, meanwhile, presents a tower of increasingly tough tennis challenges which all have to be completed to open the next two buildings; fail more than three times and you’re sent back to the beginning – yes, it’s Mario Tennis: The Roguelike.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:00 am

Colbert on RFK Jr’s Maha workout video: ‘Senior softcore that feels like dropping acid’

Late-night host discussed the health secretary’s bizarre clip and a poll saying 47% of Americans think Trump is racist

Stephen Colbert was feeling under the weather on Wednesday night but didn’t pull his punches, despite being “on enough steroids to be named the secretary of health and human services”.

The host focused on Robert F Kennedy Jr and Maha in his monologue, particularly a surreal workout video that the health secretary released with Kid Rock this week, which Colbert described as “senior softcore”.

Published: February 19, 2026, 3:52 pm

‘People are in awe’: exhibition unveils ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

A rare gilded and complete Book of the Dead, used by ancient Egyptians to help them to the afterlife, is now on display in Brooklyn

In the ancient world, travel to eternal bliss was not easy. For the Greeks, you’d have to hitch a ride with Charon across the River Styx and hope you were one of the few fortunate souls to make it to Elysium. If you were lived among the ancient Aztecs, your journey to Mictlan involved numerous struggles, including climbing a mountain made of obsidian and crossing a desert where there was no gravity and you were blown around by enormous winds.

For the ancient Egyptians, the journey to the afterlife included a danger-filled journey where your wits were tested at every turn – those fortunate enough to make it through would then sit before the god Osirus and 42 other deities while their heart was weighed against a single feather. If things went sideways, your soul would be devoured by a fearsome goddess named Ammit, composed of a lion, hippopotamus and crocodile (the three creatures most likely to eat ancient Egyptians).

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:01 am

I’m panicking about my new relationship. After my husband’s affair, how can I commit again?

It is reasonable to avoid hurt after such a big betrayal, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, but don’t mistake isolation for safety

• Read more Leading questions

I was in a relationship for 26 years, married for 17, and my husband had an affair. It was hidden, long term and denied until discovery. I divorced him but that was delayed and I had to live with him for a further two years. I spent a year alone in my new house with my now adult sons. Now I am a little over a year into a new relationship and suddenly panicking about it. I’m scared to go forward. I’m not sure I can commit to long term again, and if I see him looking at other women (we work together in a predominantly female workplace), I panic! I’m older than him by nine years and I feel like I want to end things to prevent getting hurt. But then I feel I’m being cowardly. How can I stop going down this road in my head?

Eleanor says: On behalf of everyone everywhere, let me say: what a schmuck thing for your husband to do. That is such a big betrayal. And the cruelty you’re living through now is that as well as teaching you to be mistrustful of others, betrayal on that magnitude teaches you to be unsure of yourself. If I misread things once …

Published: February 19, 2026, 2:00 pm

Say goodbye to the sex drought! What the Danes can teach us about making more love

While other countries are deep in a sex recession, the Danish drive shows no signs of stalling. How do they stay so frisky?

Copenhagen on the Thursday before Valentine’s Day is intoxicatingly romantic. That’s not hyperbole – you could breathe in and be drunk on it. The canals have frozen over, which only happens about once every 13 years, and couples are skating on them. You can see cosy bars from miles away because they’re strung with fairy lights – apparently not just a Christmas thing here. Everyone is beautiful.

But none of that comes close to explaining why young Danes in Denmark, unlike gen Z across the developed world, are still having sex. Winter isn’t even their frisky season. “You feel the atmosphere in the springtime,” says Ben, 35, half-British, half Danish. His friend Anna, also 35, originally Hungarian, says: “Post-hibernation fever, you can feel the sexual energy. Everyone is on. Everyone swims in the canals, a lot of the women will be topless – they’re like herrings.” (Which is to say: they are typically Danish, they love the water and they don’t wear clothes … I think.) Ben and Anna are millennials, of course, rather than gen Z: they provide the outsiders’ perspective.

Published: February 19, 2026, 5:00 am

You be the judge: should my best friend stop wearing the same perfume as me?

Marta wants her scent to be unique, but Elsa thinks copying her friend is just sharing the joy. Do you smell a rat?

• Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

My individuality is very important to me and I like to keep my style and my scent unique

I’m not trying to copy her whole identity. Friends having similar tastes is just sharing the joy

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:00 am

Year of the fire horse - explained: the Chinese zodiac sign that’s all about intensity

Lunar new year has ushered in a rare zodiac symbol with a reputation for energy and independence

As the lunar new year begins, the focus has turned to the Chinese zodiac and the arrival of the year of the fire horse – a rare pairing in the 60-year lunar cycle.

Drawing on Chinese metaphysics, the fire horse blends the horse’s reputation for energy and independence with the intensity of the fire element, giving it a distinct place in the zodiac tradition.

Published: February 19, 2026, 2:48 am

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for chocolate and rosemary panna cotta | A kitchen in Rome

A decadent, velvety and chocolatey set cream dessert infused with aromatic rosemary

The pungent and lingering aromas of familiar kitchen herbs – oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme, bay, lavender, mint – seem purposely made to donate their landmark volatiles to our everyday lives and food. In fact, their design is not for domestic calm and onion basket or fridge drawer neglect, but for uncultivated wilds. In particular the limestone terrain of the Mediterranean, where their defining smells are hardcore chemical defences, with every small, tough leaf or needle loaded with enough volatiles to deter both predators and competitors.

Rosemary is particularly kick-arse in this respect, with those volatiles (mostly organic compounds called terpenoids) synthesised and stored in minuscule glands that project from the surface of each dark green needle, which breaks when brushed against or bitten, releasing an intense, hot, bitter shot. It’s the evergreen equivalent of carrying personal defence spray. The needles also mark territory. By leaking their volatiles into the nearby soil, they inhibit the seeds of other plants (maybe even their own) from taking root and, in turn, taking space, water and precious minerals in a challenging environment.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:00 am

Inside voice: what can our thoughts reveal about the nature of consciousness?

Scientists and philosophers studying the mind have discovered how little we know about our inner experiences

What was I thinking? This is not as easy or straightforward a question as I would have thought. As soon as you try to record and categorise the contents of your consciousness – the sense impressions, feelings, words, images, daydreams, mind-​wanderings, ruminations, deliberations, observations, opinions, intuitions and occasional insights – you encounter far more questions than answers, and more than a few surprises. I’d always assumed that my stream of consciousness consisted mainly of an interior monologue, maybe sometimes a dialogue, but was surely composed of words; I’m a writer, after all. But it turns out that a lot of my so-called thoughts – a flattering term for these gossamer traces of mental activity – are preverbal, often showing up as images, sensations, or concepts, with words trailing behind as a kind of afterthought, belated attempts to translate these elusive wisps of meaning into something more substantial and shareable.

I discovered this because I’ve been going around with a beeper wired to an earpiece that sends a sudden sharp note into my left ear at random times of the day. This is my cue to recall and jot down whatever was going on in my head immediately before I registered the beep. The idea is to capture a snapshot of the contents of consciousness at a specific moment in time by dipping a ladle into the onrushing stream.

Published: February 19, 2026, 5:00 am

Tell us: have you ever used AI to navigate everyday life and social relationships?

We’d like to hear your stories about the ways you’re using chatbots to assist with your social life or important life decisions

Lots of people now use chatbots as personal assistants, not just for work but in everyday life and social interactions. We want to hear your stories about the ways you’re using chatbots to navigate your social life or significant life decisions.

Have you ever drafted a breakup text using AI? Or crafted a message to delicately cancel plans? Have you consulted AI on whether to take, or quit, a job? Or sought advice from a chatbot on a tricky friendship or relationship?

Published: February 19, 2026, 4:20 pm

Nepali bagpipers and a canoe marathon: photos of the day – Thursday

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

Published: February 19, 2026, 2:36 pm