‘I took two bites and had to spit it out’: candy makers are phasing out real cocoa in chocolate

Due to the volatile cocoa market, companies like Hershey are using replacement ingredients such as sugar, oil, milk and nuts

Just before Valentine’s Day, Brad Reese bought a bag of Reese’s Unwrapped Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts from his local convenience store in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was a brand-new product, released especially for the holiday, tagline: “We’ll never break your heart.”

Reese is a Reese’s aficionado who makes a point of trying everything the company produces. This isn’t a coincidence: he’s one of the Reeses, a grandson of HB Reese, the former Hershey dairy farmer who invented the peanut butter cup in 1928. Although he’s never worked for Reese’s or Hershey, which acquired the peanut butter cup company in 1963, Reese considers himself a custodian of HB’s legacy. He also takes an avid interest in the Hershey company and its leadership.

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:00 pm

Three years and 89 games unbeaten: how NYU became basketball’s unlikeliest dynasty

On a basement court in Greenwich Village, the New York University women’s basketball team have quietly become the sport’s most improbable juggernaut

When you think of New York City basketball, certain names and places immediately come to mind. Walt Frazier, Bernard King and Patrick Ewing patrolling the Madison Square Garden cedar. Latter-day torchbearers like Stephon Marbury, Jalen Brunson, Chamique Holdsclaw and Breanna Stewart. The rich lore beyond the storied college haunts of Rose Hill Gym and Carnesecca Arena that stretches from Harlem’s Rucker Park to the Cage on West 4th Street to Dyckman Oval in Washington Heights, the blacktop domains of playground legends like Earl “The Goat” Manigault, Pee Wee Kirkland and Rafer “Skip To My Lou” Alston.

What you don’t normally think about is New York University, the downtown school better known for its academic clout, interwoven Greenwich Village campus, celebrity alumni and $5.9bn endowment than for any of its sports teams. Yet it’s here, inside a 2,000-seat basement gym tucked two floors beneath Bleecker Street, where the Violets have quietly built one of the most dominant programs in college basketball today.

Published: March 11, 2026, 10:00 am

Peak interest: Toronto’s snow mountains that refuse to melt are a toxic hazard

Reaching up to 100ft, these massive piles contain tonnes of salt that keep roads clear – but pose environmental risks

Most mountains take tens of millions of years to form. Toronto’s newest mountain took just days.

Towering atop the crowns of evergreens, it has no skeleton of limestone or granite. There are no spires, cornices or headwalls. It is simply piles upon piles of snow, mixed with a toxic cocktail of road salt, antifreeze, oil, coffee cups and lost keys. It is the final resting place for the forces of nature that have battered the city in recent weeks – and a daunting environmental hazard.

Published: March 11, 2026, 11:00 am

At 56, I woke to silence: the strange, sudden loss that changed everything

Since the US has no federal mandate for hearing aid coverage, I found myself in a quandary – I couldn’t communicate with the hearing or the deaf

At the end of my second American Sign Language (ASL) class, during which I had fingerspelled my name Deborah as “F-E-B-O-R-A-H”, I thought it prudent to type a question into my Notes app rather than trying to fingerspell it. “How do I sign, ‘I’m hearing impaired?’” I wrote, showing the typed sentence to my teacher, Courtney Rodriguez. Then I pointed to one of my hearing aids.

Sixty percent of ASL, Courtney had just taught us, consists of non-manual markers, meaning most of the communication in ASL comes from facial expressions. Puffed cheeks, for example, indicates something big. Pursed lips means small. From the puffed cheeks and pained look on my deaf teacher’s face, I could sense I had hit a big nerve.

Published: March 11, 2026, 12:00 pm

‘LOL THAT’S IT?’: politics aside, the UFC’s White House card isn’t worth the price of admission | Karim Zidan

Donald Trump promised that June’s event would bring us some of the greatest fights in history. The truth appears to be rather different

When Donald Trump first announced that the White House would host a UFC event to mark the United States’ 250th anniversary, the US president told supporters it would be a “big deal”. Evidence over the last week suggests that, not for the first time, Trump may be exaggerating a little.

Trump has promised a spectacle unlike anything the UFC has staged before. “They’re going to have eight or nine championship fights – the biggest fights they’ve ever had,” Trump said in December of plans for the White House event. “Every one is a championship fight, and every one is a legendary type of fight.”

Published: March 11, 2026, 9:00 am

‘Dress for who you are’: how to start finding your personal style

Experts share tips on dressing as the most authentic version of yourself and avoiding the draw of the latest microtrends

How would you define your personal style? Is it cottagecore? Tomato girl? Whimsigoth? Quiet luxury? Maybe you don’t know what these terms mean (congratulations) and maybe you do (my condolences).

Like unwelcome nose hairs, new microtrends seem to sprout from the depths of social media every other week. In some ways, their pervasiveness has made style seem more accessible than ever. They reduce aesthetics to mathematical equations that you can solve by buying up a bunch of fast fashion. By the time these cheap, mass-produced items dissolve into microplastics – which they will, quickly – other aesthetic trends will have replaced them.

Published: March 11, 2026, 4:00 pm

Iran escalates attacks on infrastructure and transport networks across the Gulf

Iranian officials warn of ‘war of attrition’ and global economic chaos as energy supplies are throttled

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Iran dramatically escalated its strategy of striking civilian infrastructure and transport networks across the Gulf on Wednesday, attacking commercial ships and targeting Dubai’s international airport as US and Israeli warplanes launched new waves of strikes on the Islamic Republic.

Senior Iranian officials struck a defiant tone, warning of a long “war of attrition” that would threaten global economic chaos as energy supplies from the region were throttled.

Published: March 11, 2026, 11:02 pm

US intelligence sees direct attacks by Iran on oil tankers as greater risk than mines

Strait of Hormuz, key transit passage for global oil trade, has been effectively shut down by Islamic Revolutionary Guard

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US intelligence reporting sees direct attacks by Iran as the greatest threat to oil tankers going through the strait of Hormuz, the key transit passage for the global oil trade that has been effectively shut down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard since the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

The Trump administration, spooked by possible preparations by Iran to mine the strait, carried out strikes against 16 mine-laying vessels near the strait on Tuesday. US Central Command posted a video showing munitions hitting nine vessels, most of which were moored as they were struck.

Published: March 11, 2026, 10:04 pm

Elevating injured Mojtaba Khamenei to supreme leader shows Iranian war machine can run on autopilot

Lack of public appearances prompted speculation about new leader’s mortality after multiple family members died

The confirmation that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was injured in the first wave of Israeli attacks underlines how desperate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (ICRG) was to ensure their wounded choice was elevated to high office, and how confident it is that the wartime machinery can operate almost on automatic pilot without him.

The full scale of Khamenei’s injuries and speed of his recovery remain unclear, but a broken leg and facial injuries are the minimum. It is not a medical bulletin on which the authorities are seeking to dwell, although Ali Larijani, the secretary of the supreme national security council, chose his words carefully in saying “his condition has not been reported as critical”, a phrasing that suggests he has not personally seen him.

Published: March 11, 2026, 6:31 pm

Trump hits back at Republican Senate majority leader over Save America act

John Thune refusing to alter rules to force a vote as US president says he won’t sign any legislation until bill is passed

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Donald Trump hit back at Republican Senate majority leader John Thune over the latter’s refusal to alter rules to force a vote on the Save America act, a sprawling bill that would upend elections for American voters amid the midterms.

Trump delivered a blunt message for Thune to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday: “He’s got to be a leader.”

Published: March 11, 2026, 9:36 pm

California billionaires up political action with multimillion-dollar donations

Google founder backs both Republican and Democrat in governor’s race while ex-CEO fights billionaire tax

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Tech billionaires are adding to their already huge spending spree on California politics as campaigns for governor and a proposed wealth tax heat up. According to recently released campaign finance disclosures, big names pouring millions into state politics include current and former chief executives from Google, DoorDash, Reddit, LinkedIn and Facebook – evidence of Silicon Valley’s increasing involvement in politics.

Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt has become a major donor, contributing $1.04m to an independent committee, the California Business Roundtable, that is campaigning against the proposed Billionaire Tax Act, according to new filings released by the state government. The union-backed tax proposal, opposed by almost all of the state’s mega-rich, aims to help cover education, food assistance and healthcare programs.

Published: March 11, 2026, 10:05 pm

Noma chef resigns amid shocking allegations of physical abuse of staff

René Redzepi also steps down from non-profit board after accusations of both physical and psychological abuse

René Redzepi, the head chef and co-founder of Noma, announced Wednesday he was resigning from his internationally acclaimed Copenhagen restaurant following allegations that he had physically abused his staff.

Redzepi had been facing protests in Los Angeles before a four-month pop-up that launched this week. His resignation comes after the New York Times detailed shocking allegations of physical and psychological abuse, including claims that he “punched employees in the face, jabbed them with kitchen implements and slammed them against walls”.

Published: March 12, 2026, 1:55 am

Man charged with threatening Trump and Democratic representative Swalwell

Diego Villavicencio also made violent threats against an unnamed individual, who appears to be Jerome Powell

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A Florida man was charged with making threats against Donald Trump, the Democratic representative Eric Swalwell and an unnamed individual who appeared to be Fed chair Jerome Powell.

A federal grand jury in the northern district of Florida returned a four-count indictment against Diego Villavicencio, who is accused of making violent threats against a member of Congress and the president of the United States. A lawyer for Villavicencio declined to comment.

Published: March 11, 2026, 11:20 pm

Dances With Wolves actor to be sentenced in Nevada after sexual abuse conviction

Nathan Chasing Horse found guilty on 13 of 21 charges in case that affected Indigenous communities across US

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Nathan Chasing Horse, the actor known for his role in Dances With Wolves, is scheduled to be sentenced next Wednesday after being convicted of sexually abusing Indigenous women and girls, bringing to an end a case that deeply affected Native American communities across the country.

The sentencing comes about a month after a Nevada jury found him guilty on 13 of the 21 charges brought against him. Many of the convictions stemmed from allegations involving a victim who was 14 years old when the abuse began. The jury cleared him of several other sexual assault counts. Chasing Horse has denied all accusations.

Published: March 11, 2026, 7:09 pm

Trump-endorsed Republican in Louisiana accused of rape in 2007

Blake Miguez, 44, not criminally charged over allegation reported to local police but never disclosed to public

A Louisiana Republican congressional candidate endorsed by Donald Trump was the subject of a 2007 rape accusation that was reported to local law enforcement the same day of the alleged assault – but never disclosed to the public or, reportedly, the president’s team as he became one of the rising stars in the state’s Republican party.

That has raised concerns within the White House that Blake Miguez “either wasn’t fully vetted or wasn’t forthcoming about discoverable documents from his past” before securing Trump’s backing, the Atlantic reported on Wednesday, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the endorsement process.

Published: March 12, 2026, 12:26 am

Parents of US student charged in teacher’s death express remorse after prank goes wrong

Jason Hughes died after slipping in the road as Georgia teens fled a prank involving toilet paper

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The parents of a high school student charged in the death of his teacher after a prank gone wrong have released a statement saying that the teacher “meant the world to our son” and their family is in “deep remorse and grieving”.

Jason Hughes, 4o, a teacher at North Hall high school in Georgia, died last week after being run over by a student driving away from a prank involving toilet paper.

Published: March 11, 2026, 6:21 pm

‘Devastating blow’: Atlassian lays off 1,600 workers ahead of AI push

Layoffs to affect 10% of workforce amid Australian company’s restructuring plan to push into artificial intelligence and enterprise sales

Software giant Atlassian has announced it is laying off about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 1,600 positions, and replacing its chief technology officer as it restructures to invest further in artificial intelligence.

More than 900 affected positions were involved in software research and development, a spokesperson said. Most of Atlassian’s employees work in software engineering and design, accounting for over 50% of its 13,813 full-time workforce in June 2025.

Published: March 12, 2026, 2:22 am

New satirical statue depicts Trump and Epstein as doomed lovers from Titanic

Latest sculpture titled ‘King of the World’ includes plaques with pointed commentary on pair’s past association

A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets. The appearance of a golden statue depicting Donald Trump and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as doomed lovers from the movie Titanic is confronting Washington with a murkier mystery.

The nearly 12ft sculpture, unveiled on Tuesday on the National Mall, is the third piece of guerrilla art satirising Trump’s past relationship with Epstein attributed to The Secret Handshake, a shadowy collective whose members remain anonymous.

Published: March 11, 2026, 7:40 pm

Donald Trump’s mixed messages on Iran leave questions unanswered

More than a week into the US-Israel war on Iran, president has provided little clarity on how the conflict might end

• This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland; sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday

One week into the war with Iran, the central questions about the conflict remained largely unanswered: what would constitute victory, how long the crisis might last and whether the United States was responsible for a deadly strike on a girls’ elementary school that has come to embody the war’s early controversy.

On Saturday, leaning against the bulkhead outside the press cabin as Air Force One cruised toward Florida, Donald Trump still struggled to clarify his own message.

Published: March 11, 2026, 6:30 pm

US vaccine panel retreats from mRNA Covid review ahead of midterms

Advisers to RFK Jr drop the plan to end federal guidance amid Republican worries about the political impact

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A major federal panel that advises the government on vaccines has stepped back from efforts targeting Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, a change that comes as some Republicans reportedly caution that additional shifts in vaccine policy could hurt the party in the upcoming midterm elections.

Several vaccine advisers selected by Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, had been exploring the possibility of ending federal recommendations for mRNA covid shots. That initiative is no longer going forward, according to two sources familiar with the discussions who spoke to the Washington Post.

Published: March 11, 2026, 4:25 pm

Nearly 4,000 US meatpacking workers to strike at plant run by top Trump donor

Workers at JBS USA to strike Monday in what will be the first labor strike in the meatpacking industry in decades

About 3,800 workers at JBS USA, the world’s largest meat producer, are set to strike on Monday in what will be the first labor strike in the industry in decades.

The walkout threatens to put further strain on US meat prices – ground beef prices soared 15% last year – and could prove a headache for the Trump administration as it struggles with poor polling on cost of living issues.

Published: March 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

Experts fear ‘unethical’ vaccine trial in Africa is ‘prototype’ for US studies under RFK Jr

Danish researchers whose work on effects of vaccines has been called into question are at center of US vaccine policy

New details are leading experts to fear that an “unethical” vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau is the “prototype” for studies under Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of the US department of health and human services (HHS) and longtime vaccine critic.

At the center of US vaccine policy is an unlikely set of Danish researchers whose work on the health effects of vaccines has been called into question. The study in Guinea-Bissau would have looked at the overall health effects of giving hepatitis B vaccines by only vaccinating half of the newborns in the study at birth despite an 18% prevalence rate in adults of the illness, which can lead to serious and sometimes fatal health consequences.

Published: March 11, 2026, 11:00 am

The California town that lost its mayor to gun suicide

For nearly three decades, Jim West transformed San Juan Bautista. After his shocking gun suicide, a local behavioral health agency dove in to help a community in mourning

Any other night, the small California town of San Juan Bautista is shrouded in darkness, lit only by scattered streetlights and the dim glow of a few saloons. But on the first Saturday of December, a parade lights it up. Dozens of cars wrapped in Christmas lights roll through streets that look as if they were pulled from an old western. Since its inception in the 2000s, the parade has become a tradition in this village in the foothills of the Gabilan range, just 100 miles (160km) south of San Francisco.

Anthony Botelho, a county supervisor, had never missed one. In 2018, exhausted from a trip from Arizona, he meant to stay home, until his longtime friend Jim West, the town’s mayor, convinced him otherwise.

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:00 pm

Ukraine war briefing: row between Kyiv and Hungary over pipeline carrying Russian oil deepens

Budapest said it had dispatched a delegation for talks, only for Kyiv to deny the group had official status; Ukraine drone experts work in the Gulf. What we know on day 1,477

• See all our Ukraine coverage

A row between Ukraine and Hungary over a pipeline carrying Russian oil appeared to deepen on Wednesday, after Budapest said it had dispatched a delegation for talks, only for Kyiv to deny the group had any official status. Hungary and neighbouring Slovakia accuse Kyiv of deliberately delaying reopening the Druzhba pipeline pumping Russian oil to the two landlocked states. Ukraine says the pipeline was damaged by Russian strikes in January. Hungary’s Energy Minister Gabor Czepek said the group, including representatives from Slovakia, would aim to hold talks on reopening Druzhba.

Ukrainian anti-drone experts have begun working in three Gulf states targeted by Iranian attacks, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday. Kyiv has sought to leverage its expertise in downing Russian drones to help the Gulf nations, which are being attacked with the same Iranian-designed Shahed drones that Russia fires on Ukraine.

G7 nations Wednesday rejected easing punitive measures against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as the Middle East war wreaks havoc on global oil markets, France’s President Emmanuel Macron said.

Russian forces were attacking an oil pumping station in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region with drones for the second day in a row, the CEO of Ukrainian state oil and gas firm Naftogaz said on Wednesday. In a statement, Serhiy Koretskyi said the attacks are aimed at preventing the alternative supply of non-Russian oil to Europe, adding that Russia has attacked Naftogaz infrastructure more than 30 times this year.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned a deadly Ukrainian strike on the western Russian city of Bryansk as a “terrorist attack” and accused Britain, whose missiles it said were used, of overstepping international legal norms. In a statement, the ministry said the strike was intended to derail efforts toward a peace process and fuel an escalation of the conflict.

Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Wednesday one more person had died in the attack, bringing the death toll to seven. Bogomaz said earlier that Tuesday’s strike had injured 42 people, without saying what was hit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy met US negotiators in Florida on Wednesday, the United States said, in their first talks since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The talks come after the US earlier this week lifted some sanctions on Russian oil – imposed because of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine – to ease prices amid the Iran war.

Team Ukraine have launched a ­stinging attack on the International Paralympic Committee and Winter Paralympics organisers, claiming they have been under “systemic pressure” to reduce their presence at the Milano Cortina Games. The Ukraine National Paralympic Committee has made four specific allegations against the IPC and the Milano Cortina organisers, alleging mistreatment of its athletes and a “systematic” attempt to remove flags from the team base and spectators.

Published: March 12, 2026, 12:28 am

‘The shine has been taken off’: Dubai faces existential threat as foreigners flee conflict

Tens of thousands of residents and tourists have left UAE since the US and Israel started bombing Iran two weeks ago, leaving beach bars, malls and hotels eerily empty

In the playground of the rich, nobody wanted this war. For decades, Dubai built itself up as a sanctuary of unadulterated consumerism visited by tourists the world over.

But now, the city in the United Arab Emirates faces an existential threat, as the war between the US and Israel and Iran has shaken the foundations of the “Dubai dream” that so many foreigners had bought into.

Published: March 11, 2026, 4:57 pm

Meet the Americans withholding their federal income tax to protest against Trump

Some US taxpayers are refusing to pay the federal government amid ICE surges, the war with Iran and more

“I’m not paying my federal income taxes this year,” Rachel Cohen declared in a recent Instagram video that received more than 140,000 likes.

The 31-year-old lawyer in Chicago plans to put the $8,800 she owes the federal government in a high-yield savings account instead. She doesn’t want to fund wars in Iran and Gaza or immigration agents detaining her neighbors, she said.

Published: March 11, 2026, 1:00 pm

Reminders of Him review – contrived Colleen Hoover romance has its charms

The third big screen adaptation of the BookTok-loved author’s novels is ludicrously plotted yet slickly made and easily consumed

Nearly two years on, it seems we’re still futilely chasing the high of summer 2024. Charli xcx’s hedonistic Brat-era mockumentary just flopped on the big screen. Espresso still plays at the grocery store but doesn’t hit the same. Kamala Harris is maybe considering a run for something. And the movie It Ends With Us, the glossy adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel that became a somewhat surprise late-summer blockbuster, refuses to die.

That film, directed by Justin Baldoni and starring Blake Lively, should have been a Hollywood success story: a deceptively sharp melodrama that proved that frankly sentimental, female-led, 90s-style studio fare could still draw audiences to cinemas, that schlocky BookTok material need not necessarily beget schlocky movies and that Lively could appeal to the Target demographic. Nevertheless, it cast a dark shadow. The legal mudslinging over Baldoni’s alleged sexual harassment on set has tainted primarily her reputation, and extinguished any box office glow. (Lively v Baldoni – her case, not his, as the latter was dismissed – will go to trial in May.) And then there’s the inevitable pipeline of follow-ups with near-guaranteed diminishing returns, the first of which, a dreadful grief/love quadrangle/YA mess called Regretting You, threatened to kill the buzz for CoHo adaptations entirely last October.

Published: March 11, 2026, 4:37 pm

The best house shoes might be fuzzy Crocs. Yes, really

Mock them all you like – faux-fur-lined Crocs are cozy and practical for even the most annoying chores

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Have you heard the good word? You can buy Crocs lined in faux fur.

After I had cornered several friends in flimsy slippers and maniacally recited the gospel of these miracle shoes, I realized only a handful had heard about them. Given the viral levels of popularity they deserve – especially at this accessible price point – this shocked me.

Published: March 11, 2026, 7:15 pm

Becky the dog steals the show: John Dean’s best photograph

‘In 1976, Nottingham’s Victorian buildings were being torn down to make way for newer council housing. I’d go to the park and regularly bump into this man. To me, this picture seems very English’

This was taken 50 years ago by my 20-year-old self. I was away from Baltimore for the first time, where I had been at art school while still living at home. My tutor at Maryland Institute College of Art, and his friend, a tutor at Nottingham Trent University, had decided to set up an exchange programme. So I spent one spring semester in Nottingham with no classes to attend: it was strictly photography and strictly on my own, which was kind of new.

I stayed with a young family – I lived on the third floor in their Victorian house. They had a baby boy who turned one when I was there. I have pictures of the birthday. I was really embedded, as they’d say today, with this family. We had dinner together. I remember we made marmalade, using the pips to get the pectin.

Published: March 11, 2026, 2:44 pm

The US-Israeli strategy failed to defeat Iran quickly – now they are moving to plan B | Paul Rogers

It’s called the Dahiya doctrine – and the IDF and US air force are using it to destroy domestic support in Iran

• Paul Rogers is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University and author of Losing Control: International Security in the 21st Century

Given the wall-to-wall coverage of the US and its war on Iran, it looks very much like Trump is the key player. He is not. The United States may have far more military power than Israel, but the key player is Benjamin Netanyahu.

Moreover, the Israeli prime minister has fallen into a trap of his own making, and is dragging Trump and the US military into that same trap. For Israel, and indirectly for the US, the war has to end in total victory. Anything less is pointless.

Paul Rogers is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University and author of Losing Control: International Security in the 21st Century

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Published: March 11, 2026, 10:00 am

I wrote a book about theft and deception – and now AI scams are flooding my inbox | Walter Marsh

Authors like me are being targeted by AI-powered accounts promising exposure and fake reviews

• Self-publish and be scammed: Jon’s tale of heartbreak highlights boom in fraudsters using AI to supercharge book swindles

My latest book had been out for less than a month when the emails started to arrive.

One came from “Elena”, with the tantalising subject line, “When history flutters its wings and reveals a crime too beautiful to ignore.” Then followed a long, florid message about how it was “one of those rare true stories that makes you question everything you thought you knew about history, museums, and human obsession”.

Published: March 11, 2026, 10:11 pm

Surely if you rule the manosphere, you can be your own boss? These influencers aren’t even that | Elle Hunt

Content creators claim they’ve escaped the 9 to 5, yet as Louis Theroux’s new show reveals, they are mere serfs to algorithms and audiences

Who wouldn’t want to be an influencer? You’re famous and maybe even rich, just for doing what you’d be doing anyway: working out at the gym, hanging out with your mates and mucking about on the internet. You get paid to say what you think (or are at least sent free stuff), and no one’s telling you what to do. Surely only a sucker would do anything else.

At least that is the influencing dream, and many young men are buying into it. “Content creator” has for years been cited as the most desirable career by generation Z and now gen Alpha. The preferred platforms might have changed over time, with streaming on Twitch and Kick now supplanting posting on Instagram and YouTube, but the aspiration remains the same: to escape the drudgery of a desk job.

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:00 pm

I clicked on an Instagram post about a happy dog – and opened a hellish portal | Polly Hudson

Little did I know this cheerful animal had just died. Ever since, my algorithm has been serving me up more of the same ...

I’m arriving at the social media party so late that the lights are on and the floor is being swept. As a result, I’ve only recently learned that if you look at anything for two seconds, it teaches your algorithm that this is all you want to see. A cheerful dog was the gateway drug. Now, I am accidentally on Death Instagram. It is not very LOL.

The lengthy caption on Fido’s joyful, tail-waggy photo unfortunately revealed that he’d just crossed the rainbow bridge. This information was not delivered succinctly, though, meaning I lingered long enough to inform Mark Zuckerberg that this was very much my jam.

Published: March 11, 2026, 11:00 am

Trump’s ego-trip war has collided with economic reality but he can’t undo the damage | Rafael Behr

The US president’s doctrine of lawless military adventures harms American interests and boosts Vladimir Putin

Waging war with no fixed purpose means victory can be declared at any point. Donald Trump’s motives for launching Operation Epic Fury against Iran were incoherent at the start. They are no clearer now that he has declared it “very complete, pretty much”.

US and Israeli bombs have caused death and destruction, shaking but not toppling the government in Tehran. Among the targets was the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. He has been replaced by his son – an “unacceptable” candidate in the US president’s evaluation.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink? On Thursday 30 April, ahead of the May elections, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss the threat to Labour from both the Green party and Reform and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader of the Labour party. Book tickets here or at guardian.live

Published: March 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Ukraine accuses IPC of ‘systemic pressure’ and pro-Russian bias at Winter Paralympics

• Ukrainian team claim athletes have been mistreated

• Allege they had to remove flag from Paralympic village

Team Ukraine have launched a ­stinging attack on the International Paralympic Committee and Winter Paralympics organisers, claiming they have been under “systemic pressure” to reduce their presence at the Milano Cortina Games.

The Ukraine National Paralympic Committee has made four specific allegations against the IPC and the Milano Cortina organisers, alleging mistreatment of its athletes and a “systematic” attempt to remove flags from the team base and spectators.

Published: March 11, 2026, 2:13 pm

Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics 2026: day five – in pictures

We take a look at the best images from day three of the Games, including curling, cross-country skiing and ice hockey

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:27 pm

US reach World Baseball Classic quarter-finals after getting needed help from Italy

• Pasquantino lifts Italy with historic effort

• US reach quarter-finals despite loss to Italy

• Canada beat Cuba to win group in San Juan

Vinnie Pasquantino had the World Baseball Classic’s first three-homer game, leading Italy over Mexico 9-1 on Wednesday night to win Pool B and advance the United States to the quarter-finals as group’s second-place team.

Italy’s victory ended a day of uncertainty for the Americans, who needed help to reach the quarter-finals after losing to Italy 8-6 on Tuesday night.

Published: March 12, 2026, 2:52 am

Valverde’s astonishing Real Madrid hat-trick leaves Manchester City on brink

Federico Valverde was the Real Madrid hero who wrote himself into this storied club’s folklore with an immortal first-half, 22-minute hat-trick that decimated Manchester City and cast Pep Guardiola as a tactical novice.

Each of Valverde’s goals were a diagram of his supreme skill and City’s chump-like defending that leaves their hopes of a quarter-final berth near extinct. If Vinícius Júnior had netted a second-half penalty Real could all but celebrate progression, yet if City score early in Tuesday’s return who knows.

Published: March 11, 2026, 10:03 pm

Indianapolis Colts to give quarterback Daniel Jones two-year deal worth up to $100m

• Quarterback had promising start to Colts career

• 2025 season ended in series of injuries

Daniel Jones plans to stay with the Indianapolis Colts for at least two more years.

The two sides agreed to a new contract, a deal that will pay the quarterback up to $100m, a person with knowledge of the contract told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Jones will receive $88m over the next two seasons with $50m guaranteed. He can make an additional $12m through incentives.

Published: March 11, 2026, 6:22 pm

Bam Adebayo just scored 83 points in a game. Was it down to brilliance or stat padding?

The Miami Heat star scored the second-most points in a game in NBA history on Tuesday night. Some may question exactly how he got there

Second in points, last in ethics?

That will be the accusation against the Miami Heat and Bam Adebayo, after the big man moved into second on the NBA’s single-game scoring list with 83 points against the woeful Washington Wizards on Tuesday. Adebayo surpassed the 81 points that Kobe Bryant scored in a 2006 game and left only Wilt Chamberlain, with 100 in a game in 1962, ahead of him on the all-time list.

Published: March 11, 2026, 12:07 pm

Ravens reportedly agree $112m deal with Hendrickson after backing out of Crosby trade

• Ravens to sign four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher

• Raiders were to receive first-round picks in Crosby deal

Four-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Trey Hendrickson has reportedly agreed on a four-year, $112m contract with the Baltimore Ravens.

The contract is not yet formalized as it can’t be signed off until the start of the new league year at 4pm ET on Wednesday.

Published: March 11, 2026, 1:38 pm

Iran’s sports minister says football team will not play at 2026 World Cup

• Participation ruled out after killing of Khamenei

• Trump said to have told Infantino Iran are welcome

The prospect of Iran playing at this summer’s World Cup appears remote after the country’s sports minister, Ahmad Donyamali, said on Wednesday that “under no circumstances can we participate”.

Donyamali is the first Iranian government representative to address the issue of the World Cup since the US, one of the co-hosts, began bombing the country with backing from Israel 10 days ago.

Published: March 11, 2026, 1:08 pm

Rory McIlroy hopes to defend Players Championship despite back injury

• He withdrew from Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday

• ‘I’m taking it hour by hour, but it feels better’

Rory McIlroy will make a last‑minute call on Thursday over whether to defend his Players Championship title, with the Northern Irishman still feeling the effects of a weekend back injury. McIlroy will wait until his pre-round range session to determine whether he is fit enough to play.

McIlroy arrived here on Wednesday afternoon, having withdrawn shortly before his third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He hit shots for around an hour before walking the back nine with wedge and putter in hand. McIlroy sustained a muscle problem in the gym on Saturday morning, which left him basically inactive for three days.

Published: March 11, 2026, 8:21 pm

USA in jeopardy at World Baseball Classic after stunning loss to Italy

• Italy stun USA 8-6 to shake up WBC quarter-final race

• Crow-Armstrong hits two HRs but rally falls short

• Japan finish group unbeaten as Murakami hits slam

Kyle Teel, Sam Antonacci and Jac Caglianone homered as Italy built a big lead and held on to stun the United States 8-6 Tuesday night in the World Baseball Classic.

The US are done with pool play at Houston’s Daikin Park and need the Italians to beat Mexico on Wednesday night to be guaranteed a spot in the quarter-finals. If Mexico beat Italy, the three teams will be knotted at 3-1 and the winners will be determined by a tiebreaker, with the team that allowed the most runs eliminated. The US allowed 17 runs in their four group games, while Italy have given up 10 and Mexico seven with the latter two still to face each other.

Published: March 11, 2026, 4:54 am

Tornadoes hit Illinois, Indiana and Texas as severe storms sweep US

Two people killed in Indiana as officials warn millions from Texas to Michigan remain at risk of severe weather

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A series of tornadoes hit parts of Texas, Illinois, and Indiana late Tuesday and overnight, as forecasters warn that the threat of severe weather, including flooding, will continue on Wednesday for tens of millions of people from Texas to Michigan.

At least four tornado touchdowns were reported in eastern Illinois, the National Weather Service (NWS) said, leaving a trail of damage stretching into Indiana, where at least two people were killed.

Published: March 11, 2026, 1:21 pm

Binance sues Wall Street Journal over reporting on Iranian sanctions

Journal reported that cryptocurrency exchange shut down internal investigation into transactions with network funding terror groups

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The US government is investigating Binance over allegations that Iran used the crypto exchange to evade sanctions and illegally move funds, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday.

Binance has denied these claims and even sued the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday for defamation.

Published: March 11, 2026, 5:33 pm

Foreign hacker reportedly breached FBI servers holding Epstein files in 2023

Cybercriminal reportedly accessed a server at the FBI’s New York field office, according to a source and DoJ documents

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A foreign hacker compromised files relating to the FBI’s investigation of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a break-in at the bureau’s New York field office three years ago, according to ​a source familiar with the matter and recently published justice department documents reviewed by Reuters.

The details of who accessed a server at the FBI’s New York field office, ‌including the allegation that a foreign hacker was involved, are being reported here for the first time.

Published: March 11, 2026, 12:46 pm

Meta disables more than 150,000 accounts in crackdown on south-east Asian scam networks

Company also launches tools to spot scammers as Thai police arrest 21 people

Meta disabled more than 150,000 accounts and Thai police arrested 21 people in a sweeping international crackdown on south-east Asian criminal scam centers that targeted people around the world, the social media company said on Wednesday.

The operation was led by Thailand’s Royal Thai police anti-cyber scam center, alongside the FBI and the US justice department’s scam center strike force, with Meta investigators acting on intelligence shared in real time by law enforcement.

Published: March 11, 2026, 5:14 pm

At least 17 killed after drone strikes school in Sudan

Strike in Shukeiri killed schoolgirls, teachers and healthcare workers in latest incident in three-year war

At least 17 people, most of them schoolgirls, were killed on Wednesday when an explosive-laden drone blamed on Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces struck a secondary school and a health care centre.

At least 10 people were wounded in the strike in the village of Shukeiri in the White Nile province, according to Dr Musa al-Majeri, director of Douiem hospital, the nearest major medical facility to the village.

Published: March 11, 2026, 7:08 pm

El Salvador’s mass arrest policy may have led to crimes against humanity, study shows

Experts documented murder, torture and disappearances under Nayib Bukele’s policy targeting gangs

The draconian mass incarceration policy of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, may have led to crimes against humanity, according to a new study by legal experts.

By locking up 1.4% of the population without due process, Bukele turned El Salvador from one of Latin America’s most violent countries into one of its least violent – but at the cost of human rights and the rule of law.

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:00 pm

Argentina grants asylum to Brasília rioter in move that may sway Brazil vote

Decision to shield pro-Bolsonaro truck driver sentenced for 8 January 2023 attack could inflame Brazil election politics

Argentina has granted asylum to a Brazilian fugitive convicted for his role in 2023 pro-Bolsonaro riots – a decision that analysts say could reverberate in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election.

A week after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, took office, hundreds of people ransacked Brazil’s congress building, presidential palace and supreme court on 8 January 2023, in an attempt to overturn former president Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat. Investigators later concluded the attacks were the culmination of a broader plot aimed at staging a coup.

Published: March 11, 2026, 2:11 pm

Quit fossil fuels to stem deadly floods in Brazil’s coffee heartland, say scientists

Global heating linked to rising risk of extreme rain that causes devastating landslides and rising coffee prices

The record floods that have brought death and destruction to the heartland of Brazil’s coffee industry are expected to intensify if people continue to burn fossil fuels, analysis has shown.

Dozens of residents in the state of Minas Gerais have been buried alive in landslides or swept away as roads turned into rivers over the past month. Thousands more have been forced to evacuate their homes, while the wider, longer-term effects are likely to include higher prices for coffee across the world.

Published: March 12, 2026, 3:01 am

Countries must seek energy independence through renewables and nuclear, says John Kerry

Former US secretary of state says oil shock driven by war in Iran highlights dangers of reliance on fossil fuels

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Countries must seek energy independence through renewable resources and nuclear energy for their national security, and to avoid the “choke points” of fossil fuel supply, the former US secretary of state John Kerry has warned.

The war in Iran has sent oil prices soaring, as refineries and fields have closed down in several Middle Eastern countries and many tankers are stranded in the strait of Hormuz, with economic impacts beginning to be felt around the world.

Published: March 11, 2026, 2:36 pm

‘Severe water stress’: why desalination plants are the Gulf’s greatest weakness

Recent attack on plants led to fears of escalating strikes, but Iran knows drought has left it equally vulnerable

• Middle East crisis – live updates

In 1983, the CIA determined that the most crucial commodity in the Gulf was its desalinated potable water.

Although the loss of a single plant could be handled, “successful attacks on several plants in the most dependent countries could generate a national crisis that could lead to panic flights from the country and civil unrest”. And the greatest threat to the region’s water supply? “Iran.”

Published: March 11, 2026, 12:01 pm

Hawaii braces for powerful kona storm bringing heavy rain and strong winds

State’s governor declared emergency as islands face extreme weather and Big Island volcano Kilauea erupts

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Hawaii is preparing for a powerful storm this week that is expected to cause intense winds, thunderstorms and possibly significant flooding across multiple islands.

Josh Green, the governor, said on Monday he had issued an emergency proclamation in response to the weather expected to hit his state in the coming days, in order to bring additional resources into affected areas.

Published: March 11, 2026, 12:13 am

Democrats deliver ‘stunning’ flip in New Hampshire special election, latest in series of 28 upsets

Bobbi Boudman’s win over Republican Dale Fincher could be a harbinger of blue wave during midterms

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A Democrat won a special election for a state house seat in New Hampshire on Tuesday, flipping a Republican district that Donald Trump carried and marking the latest in a string of 28 Democratic upsets that could usher in a blue wave in the midterms.

Bobbi Boudman beat Republican Dale Fincher in New Hampshire’s Carroll county district 7. It was Boudman’s third try at the seat – she lost to incumbent representative Glenn Cordelli in the last two cycles by several points. Cordelli resigned from the seat after moving, leading to the special election on 10 March.

Published: March 11, 2026, 2:45 pm

US inflation stayed flat at 2.4% in February before effects of war on Iran kicked in

Effect of war on prices not reflected in data, as Trump says only ‘fools’ would think oil price shocks would be significant

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US inflation stayed flat at 2.4% in February, according to government data released Wednesday that provides a snapshot of the US economy before it was thrown into a tailspin by the US-Israel conflict with Iran.

The levelling comes after prices swung last year, reaching a four-year low in April before shooting back up in September. In late fall, inflation crept down again, reaching 2.4% in January.

Published: March 11, 2026, 1:46 pm

Texas to execute man who killed his girlfriend and her eight-year-old son in 2013

Supreme court recently rejected Cedric Ricks’ claim that potential jurors in his trial were eliminated based on race

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A north Texas man faces execution on Wednesday for fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her eight-year-old son nearly 13 years ago.

Cedric Ricks was sentenced to death for the May 2013 killings of 30-year-old Roxann Sanchez and her son Anthony Figueroa at their apartment in Bedford, a suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Sanchez’s 12-year-old son, Marcus Figueroa, was injured during the attack.

Published: March 11, 2026, 4:35 pm

Shia LaBeouf cleared to travel to Rome for father’s baptism days after court denial

A different New Orleans judge approved the trip while the actor remains out on bond in Mardi Gras battery case

Shia LaBeouf ultimately did get permission to travel to his father’s baptism in Rome, days after the New Orleans courthouse handling the actor’s recent battery arrest initially denied his request to make the trip.

LaBeouf, 39, first sought authorization to travel to the Italian capital while out on bond at a court hearing on 26 February, during which state judge Simone Levine ordered him to enroll in substance abuse treatment. A court filing associated with the request said the trip would last from 1 to 8 March and was planned “for religious purposes, including his father’s baptism”.

Published: March 11, 2026, 9:00 am

Three Norwegian brothers arrested over US embassy blast in Oslo

Trio held on suspicion of ‘terrorist bombing’ that caused minor damage but no injuries

Three Norwegian brothers have been arrested on suspicion of a “terrorist bombing” at the US embassy in Oslo that caused minor damage at the weekend but no injuries.

The police prosecutor Christian Hatlo told a press conference that the brothers, who were Norwegian citizens of Iraqi origin, had been arrested in Oslo and that police were investigating the motive.

Published: March 11, 2026, 6:26 pm

‘Sly stowaway’ fox finds new home at Bronx Zoo after illicit transatlantic trip

The fox is said to be ‘settling in well’ after mischievous 3,400 mile journey from Southampton to New York

A sly fox slipped on to a cargo ship and travelled from Southampton to New York, according to officials at Bronx Zoo.

The zoo, which is looking after the animal, said it appears healthy after early examinations.

Published: March 11, 2026, 11:49 pm

‘Stunned, sidelined and disunited’: how war in the Middle East paralysed the EU

Amid fears the conflict will strengthen Russia, Ursula von der Leyen’s embrace of US-backed regime change already looks like a doomed strategy

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The message from Ursula von der Leyen was blunt. “Europe can no longer be a custodian for the old-world order” and needs a “more realistic and interest-driven foreign policy”. In a major foreign policy speech this week, the European Commission president said the EU would always “defend and uphold the rules-based system” but in a precarious and chaotic world, that could no longer be relied upon. On the day she spoke, missiles were raining down on Tehran and southern Iran as the war entered its 10th day, proving her point.

Reverberating around Europe, the Middle East conflict has triggered a range of responses. France is sending a dozen naval vessels to the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. EU officials convened an ad-hoc summit with Middle Eastern leaders in a show of solidarity with the region. EU humanitarian aid for Lebanon is being dispatched to help 130,000 people, after at least half a million were displaced by Israeli bombs and evacuation orders.

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:22 pm

China’s rubber-stamp parliament set to approve ‘ethnic unity’ law

New legislation will require schools to use Mandarin by default, taking priority over minority ethnic languages such as Tibetan, Uyghur and Mongolian

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the state legislature, will vote on Thursday on a suite of new laws agreed at this year’s annual two sessions gathering, including a piece of legislation that will diminish the role of minority ethnic languages in the education system.

NPC delegates are expected to approve a new ethnic unity law, along with a new environmental code and the 15th five-year plan, the economic planning document for 2026-2030. Delegates have spent the last week debating Beijing’s proposed bills, which they are all but certain to approve. The NPC, which is often described as a rubber-stamp parliament, has never rejected an item on its agenda.

Published: March 12, 2026, 12:00 am

How gen Z women are conquering country music: ‘Fans are speaking louder than gatekeepers’

This month, Ella Langley and Megan Moroney became the first pair of women in country music to top both the US albums and singles charts

Country radio still has a gender parity problem. That hasn’t stopped Ella Langley and Megan Moroney from achieving historic success. Last week, Langley and Moroney became the first two women in country music ever to top the all-genre Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts simultaneously. Langley’s Choosin’ Texas unseated Taylor Swift’s Opalite to claim its second non-consecutive week atop the singles chart, while Moroney’s album Cloud 9 reached number one thanks to Target exclusive physical editions and strong streaming numbers.

“These aren’t flukes or one-off viral hits,” said Leslie Fram, co-founder and CEO of FEMco, a Nashville-based consulting collective. “Megan Moroney built her base through relentless touring and social buzz. Ella Langley’s incredible song has real staying power and even non-country crossover appeal.

Published: March 11, 2026, 9:04 am

Why Black women playing villains on screen still feels controversial

In the wake of discourse surrounding Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia in One Battle After Another, a familiar debate has resurfaced about what happens when Black women play morally ambiguous characters on screen

In one scene in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, Teyana Taylor’s character, Perfidia Beverly Hills, is more focused on seducing Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob Ferguson (then still known as “Ghetto Pat”) than on the bomb exploding just feet away from them. In another scene, she holds Sean Penn’s Steven J Lockjaw at gunpoint while simultaneously provoking an erection. These are some of the perceived brazen, morally slippery choices Perfidia makes that have unsettled some viewers since the movie’s premiere.

“I absolutely hate what this means for the representation of Black women in Hollywood,” YouTuber and cultural commentator Jouelzy said in a video posted a day after Taylor won the Golden Globe award for best supporting actress. “So often the institutional powers that be only reward us for portrayals that are stereotypical characters of Black women. One Battle After Another was such an offensive film.”

Published: March 11, 2026, 11:29 am

Why F1 the Movie should win the best picture Oscar

It may not be in pole position, but Brad Pitt and director Joseph Kosinski’s sleek, technically inventive ode to motor racing definitely qualifies for the Academy podium

Could, should, would F1 the Movie win the best picture Oscar? Well, we have to be realistic here: F1 is currently a massive outsider, at 200-1 along with The Secret Agent, which has no chance either but for very different reasons. It’s not hard to see why: this is a swaggeringly mainstream film, where tech and branding dwarf the human input, with the film itself acting as a front-end battering ram for a sports organisation desperate to break into the promised land of the US auto racing circuit. (I mean it’s right there in the title.) So even the most reactionary, conservative Academy voter is going to find it hard to mark F1 with their tick. So no, I don’t think it could win.

That’s not to say F1 doesn’t have quite a bit going for it. The Oscars, as we know, have historically had a problem with so-called “popular” films; Oppenheimer, in 2024, was the first best picture winner in two decades to finish in the Top 10 box office of the year. Whether or not that is a reflection of Hollywood itself, which since the mid-00s has concentrated its money and marketing into increasingly elaborate FX films to the detriment of drama and performance, is a question expanded on endlessly elsewhere. Suffice to say, F1 is definitely in that league, though not actually Top 10 (14th in the North American list for 2025); its ownership by Apple TV+ may have complicated things, denting its impact as a movie theatre spectacle.

Published: March 11, 2026, 8:00 am

Scarpetta review – this Nicole Kidman show is a dire mess … with an AI chatbot as a main character

Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis – who exec produced this adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s novels – have terrific chemistry. But this trashy drama is just weird

Scarpetta has been a rather long time in the making. Demi Moore was attached to the role of Patricia Cornwell’s crack forensic pathologist in the 90s, as was Angelina Jolie in the 00s. In a recent interview, the author said she had even approached Jodie Foster and Helen Mirren along the way. Now it has finally come to our screens, thanks in part to Jamie Lee Curtis, who is both an executive producer and one of its stars, with Nicole Kidman in the title role, continuing her run as TV’s hardest-working A-lister. What a shame, then, after such a long wait, that it is so dire: a boilerplate mess that insists on stripping the original work for parts and putting a cynical techy spin on proceedings to boot.

There are – for no good reason, really – two timelines in the series. In the present, Kidman plays Virginia’s chief medical officer Kay Scarpetta – a little icy, professional but prone to overstepping, haunted by secrets from the past. She is called to a crime scene where a woman’s naked body – sans hands – has been bound together with rope. We flash back to the 90s, where young Scarpetta (Rosy McEwen) is on the trail of a similar killer, who leaves a strange, glittery residue on his victims. Initially, at least, it seems as though this could be an interesting proposition, despite all the to-ing and fro-ing between past and present, which wasn’t part of Cornwell’s original novel. The idea that Scarpetta and her colleague and brother-in-law Pete Marino (played by Bobby Cannavale) may have got the wrong man in the 90s – when DNA evidence was still in its infancy – could have been the basis for a smart whodunnit. Instead, we get a sluggish procedural that barely bothers to build tension. Moments of gore come out of left field; major revelations in the case come to Scarpetta as sudden, deus ex machina revelations; and the dead women are mere plot fodder in a way that feels positively retro and grubby. The tone is strange – sometimes it’s The Silence of the Lambs, sometimes Diagnosis: Murder.

Published: March 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere review – why doesn’t he focus more on the impact on women?

It’s refreshing to see him dial down the ignorant-ingenue approach and go harder than usual. But there is too little examination of how online misogyny affects those who didn’t choose to be part of it

He’s a bit late to the party, is the first thought that crosses your mind when faced with the prospect of 90 minutes of Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere. I’ve lost count of the number of documentaries there have been on either specific leading lights in the lucrative online misogyny business, such as Andrew Tate, or the general phenomenon (the latter most recently by James Blake with Men of the Manosphere).

Still, can a subject really be said to have been “done” until we have seen what Louis T makes of it? Evidently not, so here he is, repeating his shtick as he covers ground that other less high-profile documentarians have done before him. To be fair, he approaches his interviewees with a slightly harder, less ignorant-ingenue vibe than usual. This is pleasing on many levels. I find the latter quite an effortful pose and increasingly hard to endure, and he rightly intuits that the full version wouldn’t fly here. It’s also simply getting old. We know he is an intelligent man who lives in this world – the silent supposed bafflement and dependence on giving people enough rope to hang themselves, which are such a large part of his arsenal, look like increasingly feeble weapons when the matters are of such increasing importance in all of our lives.

Published: March 11, 2026, 12:01 am

‘My family was threatened multiple times’: Arab-American rockers Prostitute on confronting an Islamophobic US

The Michigan band satirically adopt Muslim stereotypes in their songs, pushing back against post-9/11 hate. As their incendiary debut is reissued, they explain their ‘evil’ music

‘I’m the motherfucker who took down the towers,” screams Prostitute’s Moe Kazra on All Hail, opening their nightmarish, theatrical debut album Attempted Martyr. Over crushing fusions of industrial punk with elements of Middle Eastern, African and east Asian music, the band explores the vilification of Arabs in a post-9/11 US by inhabiting vicious characterisations – ones levelled at their Arab-majority community in Dearborn, Michigan. “A lot of Arabs in the area are coming to us and being like ‘that was very potent’, or ‘that was beautiful’. I didn’t really expect that,” says Kazra, who is Lebanese American. “The music is evil.”

The album’s lyric sheet, written by Kazra and drummer Andrew Kaster who join me on a call, is a flurry of violent fantasies, paranoid ramblings and literary references ranging from The Arabian Nights to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Written when they formed in 2020 but only self-released in late 2024, it became a sleeper hit with punk fans. Now signed to Mute, which will reissue the record this week, they are among the most exciting, unorthodox breakthroughs in recent American rock.

Published: March 11, 2026, 10:49 am

Do Not Go Gentle by Kathleen Stock review – the case against euthanasia

The philosopher offers a measured and reasonable argument against assisted dying

In this admirably clear and cogent book, the philosopher Kathleen Stock sets out the case against state-sanctioned assisted dying. Her immediate objection is to the end of life bill currently before the House of Lords, but her opposition extends to the principle in general. This is a polemic, but a polite one. Stock says she hopes that by the end of it we will share her objection to the ‘‘institutionalisation of death”.

It is not a popular place to start. Polls over the past few years consistently show that around three-quarters of Britons are in favour of assisted dying for terminally ill people. But Stock has never been afraid of swimming upstream. In 2021, she resigned from the University of Sussex following protests by some staff and students over her views, set out in the book Material Girls, that sex is binary and immutable and that this, rather than gender identity, should be the basis of laws to protect women.

Published: March 11, 2026, 9:00 am

Ron Howard, Emma Rice, Neil Tennant and more on Liza Minnelli: ‘She holidayed in my Cornish bungalow’

The showbiz legend has spent her whole life in the spotlight. As she turns 80, her friends and collaborators share their stories from Hollywood singalongs to acid house raves

I first met Liza in 1963 when I was playing Eddie in a movie called The Courtship of Eddie’s Father. I was seven years old and I got this choice role, which was directed by the great Vincent Minnelli. There were no other kids on this movie, so I had a welfare worker who was also the studio teacher, and I was alone in my little second-grade classroom. But one day, Vincent introduced me to his daughter, who he said was just going to hang around.

Published: March 11, 2026, 5:00 am

With its fluorescent characters and ASCII text, Marathon is a masterclass in 90s nostalgia

The revival of this 90s favourite is a retro-futuristic fever dream that is first incomprehensible, then thrillingly evocative. Plus, Donald Glover’s Yoshi debut

Back in the mid-1990s, when I was a staff writer for Edge magazine, Marathon was our multiplayer shooter of choice. We all worked on Apple Macs, not PCs, so Bungie’s sci-fi opus was one of the only networked shooters we could all play together. At the end of every day, staff from magazines around the company loaded it up and played for hours (usually with Chemical Brothers or Orbital blasting from the stereo). This was the era in which video games discovered club culture – Sony employed the legendary Sheffield studio the Designers Republic to create its box art and licensed the latest dance tunes for its marketing and game soundtracks. Western developers swooned over cyberpunk anime, newly available thanks to video distributors such as Viz Media and Manga Entertainment, and the internet was emerging as a weird, wild global meeting place. It felt, for a while, as if we were living in a William Gibson novel.

I’m reminded of these things while playing the new version of Marathon, released this week by Bungie and heavily inspired by 1990s futurism. It’s now an online sci-fi extraction shooter in which players beam down to the planet Tau Ceti IV to scavenge for loot, carry out missions and potentially blast each other in the process. Its closest rival is Arc Raiders, which makes a similar use of stylised retro-futurism. In a recent Twitter exchange, Bungie’s global franchise director, Philip Asher, namechecked Sony’s Wipeout game, its Mental Wealth ads for PlayStation and its translucent Dual Shock controllers as inspirations.

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:00 pm

Billie Eilish set for big screen acting debut in Sarah Polley’s adaptation of The Bell Jar

Grammy-winning singer is in advanced talks to lead an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s novel for Oscar-winning writer-director

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Billie Eilish is set to make her big screen acting debut in an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar.

According to Deadline, the 24-year-old will take on the lead role for Sarah Polley, the writer-director who previously won an Oscar for her Women Talking screenplay. Eilish is reportedly in advanced talks for the part.

Published: March 11, 2026, 6:29 pm

Kneecap rapper will not face terrorism trial after high court rejects CPS appeal

Judges uphold decision to dismiss case against Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh for allegedly displaying Hezbollah flag at gig

The Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh will not face a terrorism charge over allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag during a gig after the high court in London upheld a decision to throw out the case.

Ó hAnnaidh, 28, who performs under the name Mo Chara, had been charged with the offence for allegedly displaying the flag of the proscribed group during a performance at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November 2024.

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:10 pm

Jimmy Kimmel on Pentagon splurging on doughnuts: ‘Is this My 600lb Defense Department?’

Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s mixed messaging on Iran, the Melania documentary and a ‘cult’ of Maga footwear

On late-night shows, hosts poked fun at the Trump administration’s inconsistent messaging on the Iran war, Pete Hegseth splurging on high-end food at the Pentagon and New York’s John F Kennedy Jr lookalike contest.

Published: March 11, 2026, 2:51 pm

Why has one of the world’s great conductors been shown the door?

Andris Nelsons is to leave the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The shock decision is strongly opposed by the players. What is going on, and what, should a music director’s role be? Plus: why Timothée Chalamet is an eejit

The Boston Symphony Orchestra ending its contract with Andris Nelsons, its music director since 2014, has come as a shock to players and conductor alike. “The BSO and Andris Nelsons were not aligned on future vision,” read a terse statement released last week by orchestra’s board and Chad Smith, its president and chief executive. Nelsons will leave the orchestra after the summer 2027 Tanglewood season. In the glacial world of conductorly handovers and orchestral music programming, where decisions are often taken years in advance (look at the LPO), this feels disconcertingly hasty.

The BSO is one of the US’s most distinguished and celebrated of orchestras, one of the so-called “Big Five”. Nelsons won two Grammys with the Boston Symphony players just last month (for Messiaen and Shostakovich), so why has the board decided to end the relationship? Is this a board v players and management spat? There’s no suggestion of any misconduct or breach of contract; perhaps the face-value interpretation is the right one: artistic differences over the orchestra’s “future vision”.

Published: March 11, 2026, 2:55 pm

A moment that changed me: I was planning to be a musician – then I had my ears syringed

Until that point, all my life’s dreams revolved around becoming a saxophonist. But with sudden and significant hearing loss, I had to face up to a new reality

The first sign that something was wrong was a static noise that emerged suddenly in my left ear. It was 2008 and a doctor had just syringed my ears, washing out the antibiotic drops she had prescribed a week earlier, and which had rendered my world temporarily muffled. I was so relieved the drops were out that I didn’t question the strange new noise. I simply thanked her and left.

As I lay on my pillow that night, trying to ignore the new whooshing sound in my ear, a puzzling crunching noise caught my attention. My brain tried to unscramble the disturbance until, confused and now wide awake, I lifted my head up, only to realise it was our grandfather clock, chiming away the hour. My left ear, I realised, was no longer hearing sounds as they really were.

Published: March 11, 2026, 6:45 am

Promotion burnout: why women are quitting the race to be boss

In a survey of 1,000 professional women, more than half said they felt less motivated to progress in their jobs than they did two years ago

Name: Promotion burnout.

Appearance: Disturbingly feminine.

Published: March 11, 2026, 3:49 pm

My mother’s best advice: learn to raise one eyebrow at the world

It took almost a year of practice and then I was too embarrassed to show off my talent. But finally, during a stage performance, I elevated a solitary brow and the crowd went wild

When I was about 10, my mother mentioned something to me about the advantage of being able to raise one eyebrow. I can’t remember quite how she put it – I think she described it as an actor’s trick, a useful skill for conveying inner thoughts.

We both spent a couple of minutes trying to lift one eyebrow without the other following it. Neither of us could manage it. It was harder than Mr Spock made it look, and possibly not so much an acting skill as a genetic predisposition, like being able to roll your tongue.

Published: March 11, 2026, 5:00 am

Jess Cartner Morley on fashion: rugby shirts are key to athleisure’s preppy new makeover

No longer under the tyranny of compression fit leggings, today’s athleisure is something looser, with a wink of nostalgia

Athleisure is not to be confused with serious fitness wear. No one is running a marathon or playing a game of football in the shoes pictured above. Notice how, in a made-up noun that is a compound of athletics and leisure, the first has been shrunk to three letters. The only personal best that concerns you here is having an optimal Saturday morning.

Athleisure is fashion, not kit, so it moves with the times just as much as it moves with you. And it looks very different now than a few years ago, when every outfit was anchored by snazzy leggings. Tight legging sets with dazzling graphics were the parade uniform of the imperial age of Lycra. Under the cheerful tyranny of compression fit, starburst-pattern leggings with matching sports bras ruled the roost. These were outfits designed to be watched in a mirror with a rousing soundtrack: perky and sculpting, lingerie-like in their obsession with matching two-piece sets and with bottoms.

Published: March 11, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘Imagine, if everyone had a sex auntie’: Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah on tradition as a basis for pleasure

The author tells how chronicling the sex lives of African women led her to many examples of openness around the body grounded in love and care

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I first met Nana five years ago. The Ghanaian writer had just published The Sex Lives of African Women, a book I still think about often for how surprising and eye-opening its accounts of contemporary, quietly radical sexual practices in parts of the continent are.

She is back with Seeking Sexual Freedom: African Rites, Rituals and Sankofa in the Bedroom. When I spoke to her, I found a writer in transition who is still as surprising.

Published: March 11, 2026, 12:58 pm

My mother’s best advice: wear bold, bright colours

I used to hide away in all-black sport-core until I allowed myself to wear space-age silver dresses or a large-collared, lemony faux-fur coat

Maybe adolescence wasn’t the ideal time to receive my mother’s advice to wear an array of colours. What better way to express how you feel on any given day, and convey that mood to the world, she would say. It was important to the eye, to the soul.

It really isn’t the best advice to give any teenager, especially a sulky one who’s hoping to disappear in baggy, all-black sport-core. I’d cringe when she would try to push big, loud colours on me on shopping trips, talking in what I thought was mumbo jumbo about mood-lifting lilacs, energising reds and skin-warming oranges.

Published: March 11, 2026, 12:00 pm

My stay in Switzerland’s oldest mountain inn – where winter sports aren’t allowed

Perched high above a frozen lake, Grimsel Hospiz in the Bernese Oberland offers an unusual winter escape, with gourmet food, a hot tub, star-filled skies and no distractions

Near the top of the Grimsel Pass in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, a small crowd had gathered to take photographs. We were surrounded by bulky mountains and rippling glaciers, but all eyes were focused on a silvery granite chalet with apple-red shutters, its foundations deep in snow.

It was early February and, one after another, we posed in front of it as if standing beside a celebrity. Which in a way we were, because the proud building was the Grimsel Hospiz, the country’s oldest recorded mountain inn and a place that predates Westminster Abbey.

Published: March 11, 2026, 7:00 am

Apple iPad Air M4 review: still the premium tablet to beat

Faster laptop-level power, rapid wifi and 5G, plus much-improved multitasking make the middle iPad highly capable beyond just watching TV

The latest iPad Air is faster in almost all facets, packing not just a processor upgrade but improvements to most of the internal bits that make the tablet work, providing laptop-grade power in a skinny, adaptable touchscreen device.

The new iPad Air M4 costs from the same £599 (€649/$599/A$999) as the outgoing M3 model from last year and again comes in two sizes. One with an 11in screen, which is the best size for most people and a more expensive 13in screen version, which is ideal if you want a second TV or a laptop replacement.

Screen: 11in or 13in Liquid Retina display (264ppi)

Processor: Apple M4 (8-core CPU/9-core GPU)

RAM: 12GB

Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB

Operating system: iPadOS 26.3

Camera: 12MP rear, 12MP centre stage

Connectivity: Wifi 7, 5G (eSim-only), Bluetooth 6, USB-C (USB3), Touch ID, Smart Connecter

Dimensions: 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm or 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.1mm

Weight: 464g or 616g

Published: March 11, 2026, 7:00 am

José Antonio Kast, the Pinochet fan about to swerve Chile to the far right

The new president won office by promising to clean up crime, but his background is red rag to a bull for many

Just south of Santiago, the tiny rural town of Paine is a quiet grid of painted adobe facades, shaded squares and shuttered shop fronts as the summer holidays draw to a close.

But the white-knuckle fear of crime that propelled its most famous son, José Antonio Kast, to a resounding victory in December’s presidential election is as present in sleepy Paine as it is the length of Chile.

Published: March 11, 2026, 8:00 am

Why Iran’s vital Kharg Island oil hub is still untouched by US-Israel bombers

While some argue for destroying the terminal through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow, others caution of a global market ‘tailspin’

Kharg Island – through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow – is arguably the country’s most sensitive economic target but the export terminal has so far remained untouched throughout the US-Israel bombing campaign.

Experts say bombing or capturing the site with US forces would be likely to cause a sustained increase to already surging oil prices, as it would amount to taking the entirety of Iran’s daily crude exports offline.

Published: March 11, 2026, 6:00 am

An earthquake anniversary and a Renaissance exhibition: photos of the day – Wednesday

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

Published: March 11, 2026, 1:58 pm