‘The era of invincibility is over’: the week that brought big tech to heel

Ruling that Meta and YouTube deliberately designed addictive products marks possible watershed moment for social media

The young woman at the heart of what has been called the tech industry’s “big tobacco” moment was on YouTube at six and Instagram by nine. More than a decade later, she says, she still can’t live without the social media she became addicted to.

“I can’t, it’s too hard to be without it,” Kaley, now 20, told a jury at Los Angeles’ superior court. This week, five men and seven women handed down a verdict on the design of two of the world’s most popular apps that vindicated Kaley’s position.

Published: March 28, 2026, 6:00 am

Pop maverick Robyn on sleaze, snobbery and dating during IVF: ‘When there isn’t as much at stake, sex becomes more fun’

The Swedish musician decided to pursue motherhood alone, and found it came with a surprising sexual awakening – a story she lays out on her new album, her first in eight years

Robyn sits silently, eyes closed, for what feels like a full minute. “Wow,” she says. “This is really deep” It has been eight years since this elder stateswoman of alt-pop released music. She is talking about how, since then, her life has fractured and reassembled. The 46-year-old Swede’s previous album, Honey, was finished in the afterglow of repairing her engagement to director Max Vitali. Now, she’s no longer in that relationship, she’s raising a three-year-old son, Tyko, whom she had by IVF, on her own, and she has also reckoned with the scars of her own childhood, growing up in an exploitative music industry.

We meet in a breezy attic above a recording studio in London to talk about her new album, Sexistential – an ode to letting your guard down and feeling things deeply. “Defending my right to be myself and be vulnerable,” she says. She’s wearing biker boots and a mesh hoodie, and has tucked a bomber jacket, two overflowing handbags and a black leather sailor hat into the nooks and crannies of the sofa as if constructing a nest around herself. She’s thrilled to be back. “I’ve never released an album as a parent, so it’s really exciting to work.” She laughs, flashing a chipped tooth. “When I do get time for myself, it’s liberating and fun.”

Published: March 28, 2026, 6:00 am

The problem goes far beyond Noma – I’ve seen rot creeping into too many kitchens | Lauren Joseph

There’s a system that creates and condones these toxic restaurant environments – and too often it’s rewarded by institutions such as Michelin

• Lauren Joseph is a writer and chef

The fine-dining world has been closely watching the fallout at Noma since chefs spoke out about the physical violence and emotional abuse that the head chef, René Redzepi, subjected them to at his Copenhagen restaurant. There were protests in Los Angeles before a four-month pop-up of the restaurant opened there this month, and Redzepi, in an Instagram video in which he failed to fully assign himself blame (“I’m sorry everyone is in this situation,” he begins), then announced that he has stepped away from the business. The LA pop-up, however, remains and the question lingers: will this be the reckoning an ultra-pressured group of restaurants has long avoided?

It depends on whether we allow ourselves to be distracted by Redzepi and what comes next. I hope every chef who was allegedly intimidated, punched and threatened gets the reparations they seek. Then the story should move on. No waiting for the public redemption arc – but also, no useless vilifying of this man, whose past transgressions have previously been accepted.

Lauren Joseph is a writer and chef

Published: March 28, 2026, 6:00 am

Blind date: ‘It was truly a great first date’

Adam, 25, a civil servant, meets Tina, 26, who works in advertising

What were you hoping for?
Good food, good company and hopefully a bit of romance.

Published: March 28, 2026, 6:00 am

I thought I’d been coping with my sister’s death – a Taylor Swift song showed me I hadn’t

As I sat in a park during the pandemic, listening to the Evermore album on my headphones, one song finally released the grief that I’d pent up for five years

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it had been five years since my sister, Emily, had died. She had lived with cystic fibrosis her whole life, yet we were a close, tactile family. We laughed, hugged and sang often. When Emily died, relatively suddenly, aged 30 (I was 27), I coped with it as well as anyone could. In fact, I prided myself on how outwardly resilient I seemed: I spoke to a therapist, started a new job. I poured myself into a packed diary and a big city.

It wasn’t until time stopped, in a way, in 2020, that I really sat with my grief. I was forced to – made redundant like so many others that summer, my days had no shape. Like many people living in city flatshares, my one little freedom was a daily walk.

Published: March 28, 2026, 7:00 am

‘Changing a city is complicated’: Anne Hidalgo looks back on 12 years as Paris mayor

Political veteran says she faced ‘French misogyny and machismo’ while making Paris greener and more peaceful

On a sunny spring morning, the highway along the right bank of the Seine is packed with joggers, cyclists, families out for a stroll, roller skaters, dog walkers, picnickers and others taking the air.

In a few months, sand will be spread along a stretch to create the annual artificial Parisbeaches, enjoyed by all but especially city dwellers struggling to make ends meet and unable to afford the real thing.

Published: March 28, 2026, 5:00 am

‘It didn’t matter whose child I rescued’: parents of Iran school bombing victims describe their worst day

Hours before the world learned that a US missile had hit Shajareh Tayyebeh school, parents were already searching the rubble for their sons and daughters. In this exclusive report, four families describe the events of 28 February

When Marzieh heard the first bang, an almighty crash that rattled the room, her first thought went to her youngest son, Mohammad. He must have got out on to the balcony and discovered a new game, she thought: using all of his small might to smash its sliding doors closed. Marzieh stood up from where she was working at her sewing machine, and shouted for him to stop.

Published: March 28, 2026, 8:00 am

Yemen’s Houthis launch first attack on Israel since outbreak of conflict, as Rubio says war to end in ‘weeks’

Missile fired from Yemen the first since the Iran war began and came hours after the US secretary set a new timeline for the conflict

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have confirmed that they launched an attack on Israel for the first time since the outbreak of the Israel-US war on Iran, marking their entry to the conflict just hours after Marco Rubio said the US expected to conclude military operations within “weeks, not months”.

While Israel was again hitting targets across Iran’s capital on Saturday, it identified what it said was a missile launched from Yemen. The Houthis said the attack came after continued targeting of infrastructure in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, adding that their operations would continue until the “aggression” on all fronts ends.

Published: March 28, 2026, 5:56 am

Gulf countries warn of rising threat from Iran-backed militias and proxies

Fears grow that Tehran may start activating sleeper cells across Middle East as part of war with US and Israel

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Gulf countries have raised concerns over the prospect of attacks by Iran-backed militias and proxy armed groups in the region, which they fear could destabilise their regimes and escalate the war in the Middle East.

In a joint statement this week, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Jordan condemned Iranian attacks on their soil, both as strikes carried out directly from Iran and “through their proxies and armed factions they support in the region”.

Published: March 28, 2026, 5:00 am

Trump signs executive order instructing DHS to immediately pay TSA agents

Order comes after House Republicans rejected a Senate‑passed deal to fund key DHS subagencies, including the TSA

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Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday instructing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately pay Transportation Security Administration agents as the partial shutdown drags on.

Negotiations on Capitol Hill remain stalled after House Republicans rejected a Senate‑passed deal to fund key DHS subagencies, including the TSA. After first announcing on Truth Social that he would pay more than 60,000 airport security workers – without explaining where the money would come from – the president issued the order.

Published: March 27, 2026, 7:58 pm

Tiger Woods released on bail hours after arrest at crash scene on suspicion of DUI

• Tiger Woods arrested after Florida rollover crash

• Golfer charged with DUI after Jupiter Island incident

• Woods to be held eight hours under Florida DUI law

• Trump laments arrest of ‘close friend’ in remarks

Tiger Woods was released on bail on Friday, hours after the golf star’s Land Rover clipped a truck, rolled onto its side and he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to officials.

Martin County sheriff John Budensiek said Woods was driving a Land Rover that overturned after attempting to overtake a truck on a narrow two-lane road shortly before 2pm near Woods’s residence on Jupiter Island. The vehicle clipped a trailer, veered off and came to rest on its driver’s side after sliding along the roadway.

Published: March 28, 2026, 4:02 am

FBI director’s personal email, photos and documents leaked by Iran-linked hackers

The Handala Hack Team published more than 300 emails from Kash Patel’s inbox between 2010 and 2019

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Iran-linked hackers have broken into the personal email inbox of Kash Patel, FBI’s director, publishing photographs of him and other documents on the internet, the hackers and the bureau said on Friday.

On their website, the hacker group Handala Hack Team said Patel “will now find his name among the list of successfully hacked victims”. The hackers published a series of personal photographs of Patel sniffing and smoking cigars, riding in an antique convertible and making a face while taking a picture of himself in the mirror with a large bottle of rum.

Published: March 27, 2026, 9:30 pm

US law enforcement foils plot to assassinate Palestinian American activist

Man was arrested in connection with plan to assassinate Nerdeen Kiswani, following sting by undercover NYPD officer

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Law enforcement officers foiled a plot to assassinate New York-based Palestinian American activist Nerdeen Kiswani and arrested a 26-year old man in connection with the plan.

Kiswani wrote in post on X that late on Thursday, the FBI joint terrorism taskforce informed her that a plot against her life was “about to” take place, and that agents had conducted an operation in Hoboken, New Jersey, in connection to it.

Published: March 27, 2026, 9:43 pm

‘Break your silence’: Jane Fonda leads rally against Trump crackdown on arts and media

Actor outside Kennedy Center urges Americans to ‘stand tall against authoritarianism’ and resist free-speech threats

The actor Jane Fonda joined journalists, musicians and writers outside Washington’s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday in urging US citizens to “break your silence” and “stand tall against authoritarianism”.

At a damp but defiant rally hosted by Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment, around a hundred invited guests gathered to hear speakers and singers rail against book bans, political censorship and other threats to free speech under Donald Trump.

Published: March 27, 2026, 11:41 pm

Social media influencer Clavicular arrested in Florida on battery charges

‘Looksmaxxer’ influencer and his girlfriend are suspected of involvement in attack on 19-year-old woman, officials say

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The social media influencer known as Clavicular has been arrested in Florida on battery charges.

Braden Eric Peters, who maintains a controversial online presence among “manosphere” circles as a so-called “looksmaxxer”, was taken into custody on a warrant issued by the Osceola county sheriff’s office, according to local jail records and media reports.

Published: March 27, 2026, 9:09 pm

United flight narrowly avoids US military helicopter in California

FAA investigating after plane carrying 162 passengers forced to change course to prevent collision

A United flight came within a few 100ft of a US military helicopter near John Wayne airport in southern California, triggering an alarm directing the airline pilots to change course.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Friday that it was investigating the incident that happened at about 8.40pm Tuesday when a military Black Hawk helicopter returning from a training mission crossed into the plane’s path. The pilots of the passenger plane carrying 162 passengers and six crew members stopped their descent and leveled off to avoid a collision.

Published: March 27, 2026, 7:59 pm

Pope Leo heads to Monaco 488 years after the last papal visit

Decision to choose small, wealthy – but very Catholic – state for first European trip has baffled some Vatican observers

Pope Leo will travel to Monaco, the semi-enclave famous for casinos and superyachts, on Saturday on his first European trip since being elected pontiff, causing bemusement among some Vatican observers, not least because it comes 488 years after the last papal visit.

Leo will travel from the Vatican by helicopter for the one-day trip, and will be greeted at Monaco’s heliport by Prince Albert and his wife, Princess Charlene, before being taken to the palace, which has been the residence of the Grimaldi dynasty since the 13th century. It is the first time a pontiff has visited Monaco since Pope Paul III in 1538.

Published: March 28, 2026, 6:00 am

Scientists film whale giving birth while other whales work together to help her

Female named Rounder surrounded by family members when about to give birth to her second calf

Scientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn.

A team from Project Ceti, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, was in a boat near a pod of 11 whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica on 8 July 2023.

Published: March 27, 2026, 4:13 pm

Trump news at a glance: Saudi Arabia wants US to intensify its war on Iran – its regional rival

Saudi intelligence source confirms reporting that crown prince has urged Trump to ramp up ‘historic opportunity’ to remake Middle East – key US politics stories from Friday 27 March at a glance

Saudi Arabia has urged the US to ramp up attacks on Iran, a Saudi intelligence source has confirmed, as it decides whether to join the fight directly.

The Saudi source confirmed reporting in the New York Times that said the kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has urged Donald Trump not to cut short his war against Iran, and that the US-Israeli campaign represented a “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East.

Published: March 28, 2026, 1:00 am

Ukraine war briefing: Rubio stridently denies US is demanding Kyiv give up eastern Donbas to Russia

US secretary of state says Zelenskyy’s claims ‘not true’ about Donbas; French TV criticised over Sergei Lavrov interview. What we know on day 1,494

US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, rejected Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s assertion that the Trump administration is demanding Kyiv hand over its eastern Donbas region to Russia to receive US security guarantees in any ceasefire plan. Speaking on Friday, Rubio disputed Zelenskyy’s recent comments and said the US has made no such stipulation in its talks with Ukraine. “That’s a lie,” Rubio said. “And I saw him say that. And it’s unfortunate he would say that because he knows that’s not true and that’s not what he was told.” Zelenskyy this week told Reuters the US was making its offer of security guarantees for Ukraine contingent on the ceding of the Donbas region, the industrial heartland long coveted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

French public television came under severe criticism on Friday for airing a prime-time interview with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. The France 2 television channel aired 10 minutes of the pre-recorded interview during its Thursday evening news, while the full hour-long version was posted online. More than four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion on Ukraine, Lavrov on France 2 claimed Moscow was intent on defending “international law”. Lavrov said US-Israeli strikes on Iran that sparked the Middle East war had breached these rules. But he rejected any notion of Russia breaking international law in Ukraine, claiming its forces never targeted “exclusively civilian” targets.

Ukraine’s ambassador to France, Vadym Omelchenko, said on X people must be wondering why French television had given a platform to “a war criminal”.

And the French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, responded by saying Russia does not defend international law either in Ukraine or Iran with its actions. “Mr Lavrov was able to calmly spread his propaganda last night on a French television channel … You do not defend international law by launching a war of aggression,” Barrot told reporters on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in France.

Meanwhile, Moscow has denied reports that Vladimir Putin asked Russian oligarchs to donate to fund the Ukraine war, as covered earlier by Nadeem Badshah. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said one of the businessmen at a closed-door meeting on 26 March proposed donating money to the state, and Putin welcomed this initiative.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said the US still has a critical role to play in ending the war with Russia, adding that he had met Rubio on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in France. “Ukraine’s proposals are realistic and doable. Pressure on Russia is key to make Moscow end the war,” Sybiha posted to X on Friday. “We also spoke about the developments in the Middle East. Ukraine’s position is that the regimes in Moscow and Tehran work together to prolong the war.” There are fears the US-Israeli war on Iran has diverted attention away from finding peace in Ukraine.

Published: March 28, 2026, 1:19 am

Fulton county accuses FBI of ‘callous disregard’ over ballot seizures

Lawyers say agency made misrepresentations in affidavit to obtain search warrant for January raid of election offices

Lawyers arguing in federal court for the FBI to return Fulton county’s 2020 election records said the agency’s affidavit to obtain a search warrant relied on misrepresentations that rise to the legal standard of a “callous disregard” for the county’s rights.

“The only element that turns the election into a crime is intent, and nothing in the affidavit shows intent,” Abbe Lowell, who is representing Fulton county, said during the Friday hearing at the Richard Russell courthouse in Atlanta. He argued that the FBI was pursuing crimes for which the statute of limitations has expired.

Published: March 27, 2026, 7:10 pm

Hegseth reportedly cuts two Black men and two women from military promotion list

US defense secretary axed the four officers’ names from list to become one-star generals, the New York Times reports

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Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, is reportedly attempting to block the military promotion of four officers – two women and two Black men – to become one-star generals.

The remaining promotion list includes about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, though a few women and Black officers are still included, according to the New York Times.

Published: March 27, 2026, 4:51 pm

A war of regression: how Trump bombed the US into a worse position with Iran

Analysts fear Iran has played a weak hand well and the US has blundered into a defining strategic failure

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Four weeks into a war that was going to take four days, and that has so far cost the US about $30-40bn and Israel $300m a day, Washington is further away from a diplomatic agreement with Iran than it was in May 2025.

Not only has the war failed to persuade Iran to agree to dismantle its nuclear programme in the comprehensive and irreversible way the US demanded in a 15-point paper that it tabled on 23 May last year, Washington is now having to negotiate to reopen the strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that has been open ever since the invention of the dhow, with a short exception of a tanker war in the 1980s between Iran and Iraq.

Published: March 27, 2026, 11:10 am

ICE doubled its use of ankle monitors for legal immigrants in the past year: ‘A very harmful phenomenon’

Agency uses devices, which are uncomfortable and interfere with employment, to push people to self-deport, advocates say

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For five years, an asylum-seeking woman attended routine check-ins with immigration authorities without issue. At her most recent appointment in October, she was unexpectedly ordered to strap on an ankle monitor, according to her attorney, Deepa Bijpuria.

Bijpuria, a supervising attorney in the immigration unit of Legal Aid DC, described the client as a single mom who fled her home country because of severe domestic violence, escaping while pregnant with her young daughter.

Published: March 27, 2026, 3:00 pm

Portobello: how can this TV show about the mafia and a mind-controlled parrot be so wildly dull?

This HBO series about Italy’s top TV host (and his feathered friend) getting embroiled with the mob sounds genius … and yet it’s troublingly tedious

Had a little wager with myself this week, regarding whether HBO Max’s new series is about the west London vintage market, a mushroom, or a coastal suburb of Edinburgh. Even spread-betting, I got cleaned out. Portobello is actually the true story of Enzo Tortora, former host of Italy’s top TV show, who was falsely accused of being a member of the Camorra. How was I supposed to guess that?

At its height, Portobello the variety show had a staggering audience of 28 million, a national cross section from nuns to prison inmates. Among the latter, Giovanni Pandico: a froggy-looking Camorrist and clinical paranoid who becomes fixated, Stan-like, on Tortora. He believes he communicates with the presenter via telepathy, as well as mind control of a parrot which guest-stars on the show. Bizarrely, the mob criminal posts Tortora 20 lace doilies to sell on his show (in a segment actually called Portobello Market, which really spun me out).

Published: March 28, 2026, 7:00 am

Less stuff, more joy: seven lessons from ‘enoughfluencers’ on how to live a happier, simpler life

Meet the influencers encouraging us to stop buying new

Anna Kilpatrick doesn’t have a bedroom. Or even a bed. The a 52-year-old content creator from East Sussex sleeps on a wide shelf in her hallway so that her two children, 21 and 18, can have their own rooms. And yet, she says, she has “enough”. She doesn’t hanker after a bigger house or shinier car. “Having fewer things is freedom,” she says. Kilpatrick, who shares such ideas with her 104K Instagram followers (@not.needing.new), is part of a small but growing community of “enough-luencers”. The concept is similar to deinfluencing – where content creators discourage followers from buying into trends – but is also about celebrating already having enough, and, crucially, feeling happier for it.

In her new book, Not Needing New: A Practical Guide to Finding the Joy of Enough, Kilpatrick lists the benefits of living with less: “An increased sense of calm, less anxiety through clutter, free time away from maintaining the home, a healthier bank balance and reduced debt, children who are learning how to manage delayed gratification.”

Published: March 27, 2026, 3:00 pm

‘Unapologetically schmaltzy’: how Love Story became Disney+’s most-streamed drama ever

Series about the lives and deaths of Carolyn Bessette and JFK Jr is ‘prestige television without the usual weight’

The plane vanishes. Families are told. Ashes are scattered. So ends Love Story, Ryan Murphy’s schlocky, glossy nine-part melodrama about the doomed marriage between Carolyn Bessette and John F Kennedy Jr. Yet one thing is clear: the myth of Camelot – or at least this version – still captivates.

This week, Disney+ confirmed Love Story is now the most streamed drama in the platform’s history. A rare sleeper hit, later episodes drew 50% more global viewers than February’s pilot, boosted by “social reach” and word of mouth.

Published: March 27, 2026, 6:24 pm

Tim Dowling: six years of Duolingo and I speak a little Italian, but understand nothing

Luckily, I have learned two phrases that express my helplessness very efficiently

The middle one, the youngest one and I are at a car hire desk in an Italian airport. It has taken us a while to get this far, because we had to take a bus to a different terminal. But we’re here now, some way into the process.

“You are not skiing?” asks the woman behind the desk.

Published: March 28, 2026, 6:00 am

Jimmy Kimmel on Mike Johnson’s new award for Trump: ‘You can almost feel his spine exiting his body’

Late-night hosts discussed the Republican party’s inaugural ‘America First’ award and a disturbing new animal story involving RFK Jr

Late-night hosts mocked the Republican party’s inaugural “America First” award for Donald Trump as he finally reveals the “present” he received from Iran.

Published: March 27, 2026, 3:34 pm

In an Istanbul market, I came across an old German phrase book – and a reminder of how not to speak to migrants | Carolin Würfel

Turkish immigrants to Germany in the 60s were seen as temporary labour, not people. Today’s government in Berlin is at risk of repeating the mistake

A few weekends ago, I went to the flea market in Bomonti, a neighbourhood on the European side of Istanbul. I go there regularly, and over the years I’ve accumulated a small collection of things: embroidered napkins, records, old issues of House & Garden, earrings, candle holders. It is usually on the days when you are not looking for anything in particular that you find the most interesting things – or, as the Turkish writer Sabahattin Ali once wrote, “some things we never know we need until we find them”.

That particular Sunday, strolling through the stalls, I came across a book from 1965 titled Türkler için Almanca – Deutsch für Türken (German for Turks). It was among the first language textbooks of its kind, widely distributed to the so-called Gastarbeiter – “guest workers” – who came to West Germany in the 1960s and 70s. The economic boom of the 1950s had created an acute labour shortage, prompting the recruitment of workers from abroad. A bilateral agreement with Turkey, signed in 1961, facilitated the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Turkish men and women to come and work in German factories. Officially, their stay was meant to be temporary. Workers came alone; families stayed behind. A copy of the language book I found 60 years later at a flea market in Istanbul would have been in the suitcases of many of these workers.

Carolin Würfel is a writer, screenwriter and journalist who lives in Berlin and Istanbul. She is the author of Three Women Dreamed of Socialism

Published: March 28, 2026, 5:00 am

At last, David has landed a double punch on the tech Goliaths. Now to hit them even harder | Jonathan Freedland

The US court verdicts declaring Meta liable for getting people addicted and ruining lives must be just the start of a global fightback

Good news is so rare these days, you don’t quite know how to take it. You want to celebrate, but a rival instinct tells you it’ll be pulled back somehow, the same feeling you get when your team scores a late winner, but you’re filled with instant dread that the goal will be overturned on a video replay.

I confess that is how I responded to the double legal blow dealt this week to Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, when two US juries on successive days found against it in a pair of landmark cases. First came a verdict in New Mexico, fining the company $375m (£280m) for enabling harm, including child sexual exploitation, on its platforms and for misleading consumers about their safety. Twenty-four hours later, jurors in California awarded $6m in damages to a young user who had argued that Meta (along with YouTube) had deliberately designed addictive products that had hooked her from childhood, causing her grave harm.

Published: March 27, 2026, 5:19 pm

These CEOs want a starring role in our lives – and there’s not much we can do about it | Larry Ryan

Do we really need a McDonald’s CEO fronting ads or a Gianni Infantino Panini sticker? No. But in the age of Trump, the boss class feels emboldened

A few weeks ago, the CEO of McDonald’s appeared in a video sampling the chain’s new “Big Arch burger”. In the clip, Chris Kempczinski, or “Chris K” as he casually calls himself, labelled it a “product”, matching the sterile tone of the review – all harsh lighting, corporate office backdrop and an awkward man talking and eating while wearing a shirt fitting uneasily under a light wool V-neck.

Why would McDonald’s, with its huge marketing budget and commercial success, choose to platform this guy? His stilted efforts were mocked and memed, with executives at Burger King and Wendy’s posting their own versions – what fun. Inevitably some market watchers claimed it drove engagement and sales. But to me, it seems to be just the latest flagrant example of CEOism: when CEOs/founders/heads of organisations centre themselves in the action – just because they can.

Larry Ryan is a freelance writer and editor

Published: March 28, 2026, 8:00 am

Ella Baron on Donald Trump and the Iran war – cartoon

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Published: March 27, 2026, 4:43 pm

The new Trump coin will have an eagle on the back. Here are some better options | Dave Schilling

The real defining image of this presidency should be the bank statement of the average American citizen

Shockingly, inexplicably, Donald Trump keeps finding new places to put his face. Also, his name. Or initials. Or one of those drawings of a turkey a kid does by tracing the outline of their hand. He’s got his ballroom, the Kennedy Center and a proposed 250ft arch that would become one of the tallest buildings in all of Washington DC – a city with longstanding height restrictions for development. His signature will be on US dollars later this year, in a first for a sitting president. I’d ask if he was getting tired of all the attention, but I think we know the answer to that. Up next is a commemorative gold coin – worth exactly $1 – featuring Trump’s scowling visage looming menacingly over the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

It’s a pretty classic Trump pose, designed to make a nearly-80-year-old man with a variety of mystery bruises who eats McDonald’s on a regular basis look physically intimidating. Beyond the president sporting a classic gen Z pout, the Commission of Fine Arts (a panel appointed by You Know Who) recommended this coin be “as large as possible”, which immediately makes me think of the giant penny Bruce Wayne keeps in the Batcave. Good luck trying to feed a parking meter with that.

Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist

Published: March 27, 2026, 12:00 pm

The Guardian view on social media in the dock: tech bros move fast – society is trying to catch up | Editorial

Two court cases have shown how companies can be forced to take responsibility for their impact on public health

Debate about online harms has tended to focus on abusive and hateful content. But the form in which content is delivered is at least as important. That point is central to this week’s momentous decisions against Meta and YouTube, by two US juries. It will take more than these cases to loosen big tech’s tight grip on much of the world’s attention. But the fact that both companies were found liable in California, for deliberately designing addictive products that harmed a child, is a massive win for the coalition of campaigners aiming to use the US courts to force the platforms to change their products.

The second case against Meta, in New Mexico, found it liable over the use of Facebook and Instagram for child sex trafficking, with a Guardian investigation cited in the complaint. The jury ordered it to pay $375m in civil liabilities; the state’s attorney general is seeking platform changes and financial penalties.

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 27, 2026, 6:11 pm

Kimi Antonelli pips Mercedes teammate George Russell to pole for F1’s Japanese GP – as it happened

️ Mercedes lockout front row at Suzuka with Piastri third
️ Max Verstappen knocked out of qualifying early

We’re off … The first cars trundling out for their warm-up laps.

It’s not all about the drivers, of course. Here’s Princess Akiko meeting the Haas principal, Ayao Komatsu.

Published: March 28, 2026, 7:39 am

Women’s March Madness: Jackson’s buzzer-beater sends Duke past LSU into Elite Eight

• Jackson’s buzzer three lifts Duke over LSU

• Hidalgo posts rare triple-double for Irish

• UConn, UCLA advance with dominant wins

Ashlon Jackson’s three-pointer at the buzzer lifted third-seeded Duke to an 87-85 win over No 2 seed LSU in the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament on Friday night.

Jackson’s shot from the wing right in front of Duke‘s bench rolled around the rim before dropping in, setting off a wild celebration by the Blue Devils. She caught the ball on the wing and after faking LSU defender Flau’Jae Johnson put up the shot.

Published: March 27, 2026, 11:17 pm

Men’s March Madness: Foster return sparks Duke rally past St John’s

• Foster returns from injury to ignite Duke comeback

• Evans scores 25 as Duke edge St John’s late surge

• Blue Devils extend streak, advance to Elite Eight

Caleb Foster returned from a broken foot and rescued Duke’s national title hopes, helping the top-seeded Blue Devils rally from a 10-point second-half deficit to beat St John’s 80-75 on Friday night and advance to the Elite Eight.

Playing less than three weeks after surgery on his left foot, Foster scored all of his 11 points in the second half. Isaiah Evans scored 25 points and Cameron Boozer had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Blue Devils (35-2), who extended the nation’s longest active winning streak to 14, but not before the tenacious Red Storm (30-7) pushed Duke to the wire.

Published: March 28, 2026, 2:00 am

Pochettino ‘suffering two months in advance’ as USMNT faces midfield headache

The toughest cuts for the World Cup roster will likely come at the position the US manager considers to be the most important on the field

Throughout his tenure as US men’s national team manager, Mauricio Pochettino has needed to be experimental in the heart of the park. The player pool he inherited had a first-choice midfield trio – Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie and Yunus Musah – with few adequately tested alternatives. There has since been ample rotation, testing partnerships and combinations.

With 11 weeks to go until the World Cup, one thing has become clear: the tournament squad’s harshest cuts will come in midfield.

Published: March 27, 2026, 9:49 pm

Sinner continues Zverev domination to set up Miami Open final against Lehecka

• Jannik Sinner defeats world No 3 6-3, 7-6 (4) in semi-final

• Jiri Lehecka beats Fils 6-2, 6-2 to reach maiden Masters 1000 decider

For one intense, gripping hour inside Miami Open’s stadium court, Alexander Zverev outperformed the modest expectations of his sceptical audience. Under sustained, suffocating pressure from the best returner in the world, he held his own serve and kept Jannik Sinner honest as a competitive second set culminated in a tie-break. Eight points in, nothing could separate them.

Things changed abruptly. At 4-4 on his own serve, Zverev set up a routine overhead that would have moved him narrowly ahead. Instead, the tension that comes with facing a player of Sinner’s calibre finally prevailed. Zverev crumbled, framing his smash into the net.

Published: March 28, 2026, 2:45 am

WNBA’s Connecticut Sun will move to Houston after $300m sale to Fertitta family

• Fertittas buy Sun and plan Houston move for 2027

• Houston Comets name set to return after sale closes

• Connecticut get one last season before relocation

The Fertitta family, who own the NBA’s Houston Rockets, are purchasing the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun with the intention of moving the team to Houston, PaperCity Magazine and ESPN reported Friday.

The upcoming season will be the last the Sun play in Connecticut, their home since 2003, before relocating to Houston ahead of the 2027 season. They will be renamed the Houston Comets after the city’s previous WNBA franchise, according to PaperCity.

Published: March 28, 2026, 1:24 am

Kaori Sakamoto ends career with fourth world title as Glenn falls out of medals

• Sakamoto signs off with fourth world title in Prague

• Japan’s Chiba takes silver as Pinzarrone wins bronze

• Levito fourth after Liu withdraws and Glenn slips back

Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto closed out her competitive career with her fourth world title in the women’s singles competition at the Figure Skating World Championships in Prague, Czechia on Friday.

The 25-year old wrapped up a historic skating career which included four Olympic medals, including two silvers at this year’s Milan Cortina Games, with a personal-best 238.28 after an emotional free skate performance at O2 Arena. She’s the first women’s single skater to win four world championships since Michelle Kwan, who won her fifth in 2003.

Published: March 27, 2026, 11:25 pm

The Strong, silent type: UConn’s standout is making basketball stardom look easy

Sarah Strong has the most jump-off-the-page talent in the women’s game since Caitlin Clark, and UConn greats say she could be the best of them

Former WNBA All-Star turned Boston Celtics executive Allison Feaster was recently asked about the differences between high-level female and male hoopers.

“This is a very basic example,” the Celtics’ vice-president of team operations and organizational growth told the Far From the Tree podcast. “But most of the women have had exposure to different types of leadership. Most of the professionals have four-year degrees and even advanced degrees. Many of the professional women have lived outside of the US. Some of them are parents who are the primary caregiver. That is a very general observation, but I venture to say that’s not the same with the NBA players.”

Published: March 27, 2026, 9:00 am

Faith Kates: the woman who introduced models to ‘dear friend’ Jeffrey Epstein

Former talent agency boss had closer relationship with sex offender than thought, and supported him after 2009 arrest

A female executive at the top of the modelling industry had a close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and introduced him to women on the agency’s books, a Guardian investigation has found.

Until last November, Faith Kates ran Next Management modelling and talent agency, which has represented the likes of Alexa Chung, Milla Jovovich and Billie Eilish, a position she held for decades as the founder of the business. She stepped down quietly just weeks before the first major Epstein files were released, saying she intended to focus on charity work.

18 July 2009 10.18am

I am and will always be your friend...Unconditionally...will always be there for you.

5 September 2009 7.47pm

Thinking of you a lot and hoping you are finally enjoying some please [sic] and quiet..know you are always in my thoughts and prayers. You are a good friend my dear friend..

5 September 2009 7.54pm

thanks,, lets get back to work.

Published: March 27, 2026, 9:21 am

Connecticut officer fired after shooting man in mental health crisis as others tried to de-escalate

Mayor of Hartford has fired a white police officer who fatally shot a Black man in a mental health crisis nine times

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A white Connecticut police officer who fatally shot a Black man 30 seconds after arriving at the scene, where three fellow officers had spent several minutes trying to de-escalate the situation, was fired Friday.

Arunan Arulampalam, Hartford’s mayor, said in a statement that he terminated Officer Joseph Magnano effective immediately in connection with the 27 February shooting of Steven Jones, who was on a city street holding a knife. The killing came eight days after a different Hartford officer fatally shot another man in a mental health crisis.

Published: March 27, 2026, 10:11 pm

KP Sharma Oli: Nepal’s former prime minister arrested over alleged role in deadly protest crackdown

At least 77 people killed in anti-corruption youth uprising in September, which began over a brief social media ban

Nepal’s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli was arrested early on Saturday morning over his role in the deaths of dozens of people who took part in the gen Z protest that toppled his government last year.

Police detained the three-time former prime minister at his residence in the capital Kathmandu, and also arrested his former home affairs minister Ramesh Lekhak.

Published: March 28, 2026, 5:25 am

Five Guys CEO says he gave a $1.5m bonus to his workers so he wouldn’t get shot in the back

Jerry Murrell seemingly alluded to healthcare CEO killing when he explained giving bonus to workers after bungled promotion

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Five Guys’ chief executive officer, Jerry Murrell, said he gave a $1.5m bonus to employees of his US-based burger restaurant chain because “I didn’t want anybody shooting me” after the company recently “screwed … up” a buy-one-get-one-free promotion.

Murrell did not elaborate on the comment, which he gave to Fortune in an interview published on Wednesday – but it came a little more than a year after the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead on a midtown Manhattan street in what was widely considered a murderous rebuke of the US health insurance industry’s profit-driven practices.

Published: March 27, 2026, 4:47 pm

Breonna Taylor shooting: charges dismissed against ex-police officers for falsifying warrant

Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany were accused of lying on document used to enter Taylor’s house on night of shooting

A federal judge has dismissed charges against two former Louisville police officers accused of falsifying the warrant used to enter Breonna Taylor’s apartment the night police shot her to death.

Charles Simpson, a US district judge, issued a one-page ruling on Friday throwing out charges against Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, two former officers involved in crafting the Taylor warrant.

Published: March 27, 2026, 10:15 pm

Wily coyote? Urban canines take more risks compared with rural ones, study finds

Researchers believe behavioral gap, which may hold true across species, is probably product of less fear of harassment in cities

Anyone who has lived long enough in a city can tell you – with time, you just stop noticing strange new things. A unicycling bagpiper. A person changing clothes on the subway. Murals that transform streets into art.

Coyotes in cities seem to be bolder as well and less afraid of new experiences. That’s according to a new study that researchers conducted at more than a dozen sites across the US, comparing urban and rural coyotes’ reaction to new stimuli.

Published: March 27, 2026, 2:00 pm

Trump EPA relied on industry science to weaken formaldehyde cancer rules, documents show

Papers reveal how chemical lobby influenced policy, reversing Biden-era limits on a common carcinogen

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A new trove of chemical producer and US Environmental Protection Agency documents reveal an elaborate industry operation that killed strong regulations around formaldehyde, a highly toxic carcinogen widely used in everyday goods from cosmetics to furniture to craft supplies.

The Biden EPA in late 2024 determined any exposure to formaldehyde increased the risk of cancer and other health problems. The Trump EPA in late 2025 moved to undo those findings and replace them with less protective figures.

Published: March 27, 2026, 11:00 am

Danger after disaster: why emergencies come with increased risks for women

After events such as Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean, shelters offer refuge but no guarantee of safety to women and girls

The grandchildren called the shelter Final Destination, after a favourite film. Tedica Alexander, 61, a resident of Union Island in St Vincent and the Grenadines, recalls with pride – and a tremor in her voice – how her nine grandchildren supported her and others at the Ashton community centre when Hurricane Beryl hit the area in July 2024.

Alexander arrived after she was advised to seek shelter in Ashton, rather than at Clifton school as she had expected as it was closer. As the storm approached, the shelter quickly filled up. The building’s windows shattered, and flood waters rose above ankle height. “If it had lasted one more minute, the door would have given way,” she says.

Published: March 27, 2026, 2:00 pm

‘Tempolimit? Nein, danke!’: why German petrolheads won’t slow down – despite the energy crisis

Driving fast is in ‘the German DNA’, say lovers of the speed-limit free Autobahn, but support in the country for a restriction is growing

Death-defying thrills are not what draws Lutz Leif Linden to zip down the Autobahn faster than a plane taking off. Instead, the feeling of freedom and an appreciation of technological mastery play a part in his “almost loving relationship” with driving cars faster than most people can imagine.

The top speed he has reached on the road in Germany, the world’s only democracy without a blanket speed limit on motorways, is 400km/h (249mph). “It’s like an airplane,” said Linden, the president of the Automobile Club of Germany (AvD). “You are faster than an Airbus at start.”

Published: March 27, 2026, 1:00 pm

Member of Jill Biden’s security detail shoots self in leg at Philadelphia airport

Ex-first lady wasn’t near ‘negligent discharge’ and agent is now in hospital while Secret Service investigates incident

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A US Secret Service agent, working on security detail for the former first lady Jill Biden, shot themself in the leg at the Philadelphia international airport on Friday morning, an agency spokesperson said.

The Secret Service special agent suffered a “non-life-threatening injury” after they discharged their weapon at around 8.30am. Biden was not near the agent at the time and no one else was injured.

Published: March 27, 2026, 4:24 pm

Man who allegedly planted bomb at US airbase at large after fleeing to China

Alen Zheng, a US citizen, allegedly planted device that went undiscovered for a week at MacDill air force base in Florida

A man who allegedly planted a bomb that went undiscovered for a week in the visitors center of the Florida headquarters of US Central Command, which oversees the ongoing war in Iran, remained at large on Friday after fleeing to China.

Authorities charged Alen Zheng and his sister Ann Mary Zheng, both US citizens in separate indictments this week for their alleged role in planting the explosive device at MacDill air force base. Ann Mary Zheng was arrested in the US after a short trip to China, and was arraigned on Thursday in a federal court in Florida.

Published: March 27, 2026, 2:38 pm

The third No Kings protests are expected to draw millions. Do they need clearer goals?

Anti-authoritarian rallies standing up to Trump have broad objectives and no leaders. Organizers say that is by design

More than 3,100 anti-authoritarian protests are scheduled across the US and at least 15 other countries on Saturday. All these events will take place under a single banner: No Kings.

Formally launched in June to fight back against Trump administration policies, the No Kings movement has grown with astonishing speed – its second and most recent mass protest in October drew an estimated 7 million participants. Organizers expect Saturday’s events to be the biggest protest in American history.

Published: March 27, 2026, 2:03 pm

Judge rebukes woman who denied driving while video-calling from car: ‘Do you think I’m that stupid?’

Kimberly Carroll ‘truly sorry’ after calling in to court hearing via Zoom from behind the wheel of a moving vehicle

A woman who dialed into a court hearing in Detroit while in her car this week was berated by the judge, who asked “Do you think I’m that stupid?” when she appeared on video apparently driving the vehicle.

Fox2 Detroit reported that defendant Kimberly Carroll called late into a hearing relating to a financial matter, and was asked by the judge, Michael K McNally, to turn on her camera.

Published: March 27, 2026, 1:42 pm

UK ‘weeks away’ from medicine shortages if Iran war continues, experts say

Concern that supply chain disruption could hit health essentials – and prices – from painkillers to cancer treatment

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Britain is “a few weeks away” from medicine shortages ranging from painkillers to cancer treatment if the Iran war continues, according to experts, while drug prices could also rise.

The conflict has disrupted the supply of a myriad of crucial raw materials, including oil, gas, crop fertiliser and helium – and health essentials could be next.

Published: March 28, 2026, 7:00 am

Whale stranded off Germany swims to freedom after days of efforts to save it

Rescuers used boats and excavators to try to guide 10-metre long sea mammal to deeper waters

A humpback whale stranded on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast since early this week has freed itself and swum into deeper waters, rescuers said on Friday.

A flotilla of vessels were following the weakened animal at a distance, hoping to help guide it into the North Sea and toward the Atlantic Ocean, its natural habitat.

Published: March 27, 2026, 4:35 pm

Sony to hike PS5 prices by $100 as AI and Iran war push up memory chip costs

Updated prices of PlayStation 5 consoles to go into effect on 2 April as electronics makers face rising cost pressures

Sony is raising global prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles, including a $100 increase in the US, marking its second hike in less than a year as the entertainment giant grapples with rising costs of key components such as memory chips.

The tech industry’s race to build out artificial intelligence infrastructure has pushed memory makers to favor higher-margin datacenter chips, tightening supply for consumer devices like the ones Sony sells.

Published: March 27, 2026, 7:08 pm

UN’s landmark slavery ruling energises African Union’s fight for reparations

• UN votes to describe slave trade as ‘gravest crime against humanity’

Despite resistance from states who had role in chattel slavery, many feel this is an idea whose time has come

John Mahama knows a thing or two about beating the establishment. On Wednesday, less than two years after completing a remarkable comeback as Ghana’s president with a landslide defeat of the ruling party candidate, he rallied the world to ratify a landmark vote against transatlantic chattel slavery, despite major opposition from the same western entities that drove it for centuries.

The resolution to declare the practice as “the gravest crime against humanity” passed with a decisive majority at the UN general assembly and has been largely welcomed across Africa. Yet the details of the tally reveal a world still deeply divided on the gravity of the sin of enslaving more than 15 million people as chattel over the course of 400 years.

Published: March 27, 2026, 1:07 pm

‘I wrote The Sopranos to get over my mother wishing me dead’: David Chase on his mob masterpiece – and his new LSD epic

Will the great TV writer ever top his mega hit? He talks us through his new series about the CIA’s attempts to weaponise LSD – and reveals why James Gandolfini called him ‘Satan’

Last week, a plush London hotel became a temple to HBO Max. Pictures of Carrie Bradshaw lined the corridors, HBO Max cushions dotted every chair in sight, and a heaving roster of A-list talent – Lisa Kudrow, Noah Wyle and Steve Carell – were poised and ready to hustle for the streamer’s UK launch.

However, you could argue that this whole circus was constructed because of one man. A few decades ago, HBO was a little-seen backwater of sport and standup. One show propelled it to the forefront of prestige television. That show was The Sopranos. The man who created it is David Chase.

Published: March 27, 2026, 2:19 pm

‘How can a TV show make you feel such emotions?’ The Bluey composer shares the trick to music that ‘hits you in the feels’

As the new Bluey album, Up Here, arrives – complete with chamber orchestra – Joff Bush describes how he ‘seeds’ musical elements to draw out powerful emotions

There’s a new Bluey album out.

Up Here is the fourth album from the team behind the beloved Australian TV show, and the first to feature a chamber orchestra. It’s something composer Joff Bush didn’t think would fly when they first started making the show.

Published: March 27, 2026, 11:00 pm

Your Friends and Neighbours to Portobello: the seven best shows to stream this week

Jon Hamm is back as the charismatic banker-cum-cat burglar, plus an irresistibly strange show about the TV host accused of being a mafioso

No one does problematic but sneakily likable middle-aged man like Jon Hamm and his charisma carries this black comedy about financier-turned-burglar Andrew “Coop” Cooper. Despite being offered his old job back, Coop has decided to continue with his riskily enjoyable crisis. While he emerged from season one’s explosive climax smelling of roses, he’s soon on a collision course with his squeeze/nemesis Samantha Levitt. And worryingly, age is catching up with Coop as a back spasm curtails his latest robbing spree. Every now and then, the show edges towards a satire on jaded suburban overconsumption. But it is slightly too keen to have its aspirational cake and eat it, so remains a flimsy (albeit fun) romp.
Apple TV, from Friday 3 April

Published: March 27, 2026, 7:00 am

‘A broken heart can turn somebody into a bad Casanova’: breakout R&B star Leon Thomas on defiance, D’Angelo and his ‘doggie’ persona

Winning two Grammys last month cemented the New Yorker’s transition from producer for the likes of Drake to guitar-soloing superstar. Now he has Stevie Wonder calling him up – though he’s conscious of living up to the greats

Forget viral hits or sold-out shows: you know you’ve reached the big time when the godfather of funk gives you custom-made headgear. Last spring, Leon Thomas was backstage at California’s Coachella festival and due to join Ty Dolla $ign, his label boss, for a performance alongside George Clinton. The cosmic crusader said to Thomas: “‘You’re the kid who does the dog song, right? I made something for you,’” Thomas recalls. “He gave me this cool white hat with a foxtail on it.”

Thomas wore it to play Mutt, his 2024 breakthrough single, followed by a rendition of Clinton’s 1982 P-funk anthem Atomic Dog. But not before Clinton hot-boxed the trailer. “I don’t really smoke weed any more, but I was in the dressing room with him and Ty,” says Thomas, 32. “They both were smoking so much – when I was on stage, I realised, ‘Ohhh, I’m a little buzzed right now!’” A spiritual baton had been passed. “We went up there and rocked the crowd,” Thomas continues. “It was like 12, 13,000 [people] out there, the energy was crazy. I don’t know if you can tell, I’m still buzzing.”

Published: March 27, 2026, 5:00 am

Add to playlist: the coffee-shop pop of Gianna and the week’s best new tracks

With her acoustic guitars and trip-hoppy beats, the London musician recalls a particular era of polished 00s boho-pop, from Nelly Furtado to Corinne Bailey Rae

From London
Recommended if you like All Saints, Frou Frou, Nelly Furtado
Up next EP out now; on tour with After in May

The first time I heard Gianna’s Shadow of a Bird, I was instantly transported to a place that smelled of Impulse body spray. It is a track that has perfectly nailed the polished boho-pop of early 00s Nelly Furtado, All Saints and Corinne Bailey Rae – the sort that features arpeggiated acoustic guitar, vaguely trip-hop beats and a gently distinctive voice swooping through them.

Published: March 27, 2026, 12:00 pm

Flea: Honora review – Chili Pepper turns piper, taking up trumpet for a soulful jazz odyssey

(Nonesuch)
Imaginative interpretations of Funkadelic and Frank Ocean sit alongside starry collaborations and gorgeous instrumentals on the bassist’s brassy side project

While some rock musicians fill the boredom of long tours with nefarious activities, bassist Flea spent Red Hot Chili Peppers’ global jaunt of 2022-24 practising the trumpet, an instrument he first played as a child before funky rock pulled him away. Now, the 63-year-old’s daily routine and open spirit has produced his own deeply meditative and groovy jazz odyssey.

Named after a family member, Honora brings together a star-studded cast of peers and LA jazz and experimental luminaries for 10 tracks spanning Flea-penned instrumentals, chanted mantras and imaginative reinterpretations. The bassist doubles as narrator for spirited track A Plea, a yelled call for sanity (“Live for peace! Live for love!”) amid global madness and takes his trumpet to Eddie Hazel’s famous guitar solo on a beautifully plaintive remodel of Funkadelic’s Maggot Brain.

Published: March 27, 2026, 8:00 am

Benjamin Wood: ‘John Fowles’s The Magus was so frustrating I threw it at the wall’

The author on the Steinbeck novel that moved him to tears, how becoming a father inspired him to reread Marilynne Robinson, and the culinary comforts of James M Cain

My earliest reading memory
When I was eight, my mother bought me Stanley Bagshaw and the Short-sighted Football Trainer by Bob Wilson. I grew up thinking he was the same Bob Wilson who played in goal for Arsenal and presented sport on ITV. That wasn’t true, but it has never dampened my appreciation of this brilliant rhyming picture book, which ought to be reissued to inspire more kids to read. My sons adore it.

My favourite book growing up
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck had a profound effect on me in secondary school. I was amazed by how vividly a writer could evoke a landscape in words. It was also the first novel that moved me to tears, and stories that can do that will always stay dear to me.

Published: March 27, 2026, 10:00 am

Love Lane by Patrick Gale review – a homecoming tale with echoes of Brokeback Mountain

This kindly and companionable story of a man returning to 50s England after living in Canada offers a colourful evocation of the times

Towards the end of Love Lane, elderly protagonist Harry Cane becomes a figure of twinkly-eyed mischief. Gossiping with his granddaughter Pip, he advises her that “people without secrets … are like people with very tidy houses: usually not worth knowing”.

Dangerously buried secrets are very much the order of the day in Patrick Gale’s 18th novel. We start as we mean to go on: Love Lane opens with a recounting of the clandestine relationship between widower Harry and his bachelor brother-in-law Paul Slaymaker, Englishmen who separately emigrated to Canada around the turn of the last century. We first meet them as homesteaders in the unforgiving Saskatchewan wilds; Gale aficionados who encountered Cane in 2015’s A Place Called Winter remember the dark cloud of scandal that hastened his departure from Britain. The “steady tenderness” between Harry and Paul, which is passingly reminiscent of Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain, gives the men succour as their neighbouring farms weather the bitter economic vicissitudes of the 1920s and 30s, but their wordlessly powerful bond is for ever altered by the arrival of Dimpy, a woman down on her luck, and her hard-hearted son, Davy.

Published: March 27, 2026, 9:00 am

No New York by Adele Bertei review – a vivid, vibrant, musical coming of age

1970s and 80s New York are viscerally evoked in this potent memoir of the ‘no wave’ scene

You won’t necessarily have heard of Adele Bertei: she was a member of experimental jazz-punk band the Contortions from 1977 and recorded the pop-house single Build Me a Bridge. But her memoir is an essential slice of New York’s bohemian pizza pie, and works in part because she is a relative unknown, not weighed down by her own cultural baggage.

Following a troubled, itinerant upbringing, she arrives in Manhattan in 1977 to find a city on its knees. The big apple was in the red, both literally (fires were a regular occurrence) and monetarily (there was a municipal debt crisis). But pre-Aids and post-Warhol’s avant garde grip, it was also a place that was creatively open.

Published: March 27, 2026, 7:00 am

Stop the world, I want to get off and run a video rental store in the 1990s | Dominik Diamond

Retail sims aren’t my thing, but the tactile, nostalgic pleasures of hit indie title Retro Rewind have me yearning for the era of physical media, smoking indoors and uncomplicated geopolitics

It’s early doors, but 2026 may be the biggest bin fire of a year in my lifetime. Wars starting, then ending, then starting again in the course of a week. People running their cars on hopes and dreams because a tank of petrol costs more than the vehicle. Manospheric morons making millions. Several depressing celebrity deaths before I’ve so much as eaten my first Creme Egg of the year.

I had no idea that the antidote to my anxiety and rage would be a cheap little title, made by two French blokes, in what I usually regard as the most turgid gaming genre. Retro Rewind is the moment’s indie darling, selling more than 100,000 copies on Steam in a week. In it, you run a video rental shop in the 90s. You need to buy videos. Display them well. Drop flyers. Serve your customers. Buy more stuff. It’s no different from any other retail sim out there, and I normally shun them because I play video games to escape the boring world of work and into an exciting one of dragons, aliens, and being brilliant at sports.

Published: March 27, 2026, 10:00 am

The Guide #236: Is celebrity casting a cynical marketing stunt or does it help to democratise theatre?

In this week’s newsletter: From singers to YouTube stars and TV hosts, more famous faces are treading the boards. Some insiders think it’s killing the industry, but for others it opens up theatre to a wider audience

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Timothée Chalamet might have smirked his way out of an Oscar. Sabrina Carpenter might have been roundly snubbed at the Grammys. But there’s one place both would be welcomed with open arms: the UK theatre scene.

It seems we can’t get enough of celebs on stage (acting chops preferable but not mandatory). This week alone, London’s West End features Stranger Things star Sadie Sink, singer Self Esteem and Strictly cutie pie Johannes Radebe. Meanwhile, Mischa Barton, best known for playing Marissa Cooper in the 00s TV series The OC, is touring the UK and Ireland in a new adaptation of James M. Cain’s crime novel Double Indemnity.

Published: March 28, 2026, 7:00 am

‘The violence of racist tyranny’: African Guernica goes on display alongside Picasso masterpiece

Piece by late South African artist Dumile Feni is part of new series History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, But It Does Rhyme

On the second floor of the Reina Sofía, in the very spot where Picasso’s Guernica was first exhibited when it arrived in the Madrid museum 34 years ago, there now hangs a smaller, near-namesake of the Spanish artist’s most famous work.

While African Guernica, which was drawn by the late South African artist Dumile Feni in 1967, may lack the scale of Picasso’s masterpiece, its depth, anger and unnerving juxtaposition of man and beast, light and dark, and innocence and cruelty, are every bit as disturbing.

Published: March 27, 2026, 7:42 am

‘At certain points, I had to stop entirely’: what I learned after a week of Hyrox classes

The popular fitness trend is all over social media, and curious, I tried a few classes – they left me totally out of air

I have spent years in and out of the gym, trying the latest fitness trends. Consequently, my social media feed often populates with shirtless, sweaty men promising to transform my workouts.

Then it started. First, it was the occasional video of athletes grinding through a series of herculean tasks: pushing plate-laden sleds, collapsing over rowing machines, sprinting laps and throwing weighted balls at a wall inside of what looked like an aircraft hangar. That trickle became an avalanche, and I became curious.

Published: March 27, 2026, 4:00 pm

Meera Sodha’s vegetarian recipe for Malabar Hill eggs with tomato chutney | Meera Sodha recipes

This is simply some deliciously spicy, baked grated potatoes, with an egg on top and a moreish chutney to go with it – you can thank us later

Eggs are very Easter-appropriate, and some of my favourite egg recipes come from the egg-obsessed Parsis (descendants of Persian Zoroastrians, who emigrated to India thousands of years ago). Their obsession extends beyond the kitchen, too: achoo-meechoo, for example, is a custom where an egg is waved around a person’s head (six times clockwise, once anti-clockwise), then broken to ward off evil. When it comes to cooking, meanwhile, Parsis will put an egg on anything, and one favourite dish is kanda papeta par eeda, or eggs on potatoes, which I ate when staying with friends in Mumbai’s Malabar Hill and which inspired today’s recipe.

Published: March 28, 2026, 6:00 am

The best Pfas-free rain jackets in the US

Ditch the ‘forever chemicals’ – we tested these jackets in torrential downpour, the shower and on hiking trails

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Rain jackets have evolved so far that a modern shell at any price point will keep you dry. But like non-stick pans, many of them accomplished this miracle with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly known as Pfas or “forever chemicals”. Now that we understand the harm these chemicals cause in humans and the environment, manufacturers have had to scramble to invent new coatings that perform as well as the tried-and-true.

They’ve risen to the occasion. Every Pfas-free rain jacket we evaluated will genuinely keep you dry in the rain. The real differentiators come down to comfort, breathability and whether a jacket’s design makes sense for how you’ll be spending time in the rain.

Best Pfas-free rain jacket overall:
Peak Performance Trail HIPE 2.5L Shell

Published: March 27, 2026, 1:15 pm

Is foraging really feasible to feed myself?

This labor-intensive way of eating isn’t for everyone – and I’m not sure it’s for me. It requires planning and flexibility

When I called Robin Greenfield, an environmental activist and author, his assistant answered. “We’re stopped really quick,” Marielle said, adding “he is harvesting a ton of wild onions right now. He’ll be on in just a minute.”

I waited, curious to see his haul and bemused by his willingness to delay an interview for wild vegetables. I had called Greenfield, who wrote Food Freedom about the year he grew and foraged 100% of his food, to talk about how possible, or hard, it is to do just that.

Published: March 27, 2026, 11:00 am

When a ​football manager’s ​wardrobe ​says ​more ​than ​his​ tactics

From flannel shirts to herringbone tailoring, Pep Guardiola’s stylistic pivot hint​s at a man renegotiating his identity ​in the twilight of ​his footballing era

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Last Tuesday, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola lost to Real Madrid in a £270 shirt.

The grungy flannel number from the cult Swedish menswear brand Our Legacy was so noteworthy it consumed more post-match oxygen than the news that Manchester City had been dumped out of the Champions League before the quarter-finals. Never mind that Guardiola is beginning to look bereft of ideas for the first time in his career. All anyone cared about was whether he’d hired a stylist.

Published: March 27, 2026, 7:00 am

Used to measure chilli peppers, what are SHU? The Saturday quiz

From blackjack and knobkerrie to a ‘shivering’ footballer, test your knowledge with the Saturday quiz

1 Which 1970s TV hit was based on the writings of Suetonius and Tacitus?
2 Which footballer trademarked his “shivering” goal celebration?
3 Which planet is lashed by winds exceeding 1,200mph?
4 Used to measure chilli peppers, what are SHU?
5 Which poetic couple married on Bloomsday in 1956?
6 Bees and wasps have how many eyes?
7 What is the highest peak in the Pennines?
8 Which chemical element is named after a New Zealander?
What links:
9 Iquitos, Peru; Juneau, Alaska; Norilsk, Russia?
10 1; 11; 21; 1211; 111221; 312211?
11 Embla; Eve; Lilith; Mashyana; Pandora; Shatarupa?
12 Blackjack; knobkerrie; persuader; shillelagh?
13 Billy Connolly; Alex Ferguson; Peter the Great; Lech Wałęsa?
14 Mamdani; Adams; de Blasio; Bloomberg?
15 Spotlight; 1815 battle; distress signal; Italian exclamation; Kathy Burke sitcom?

Dedicated to Laurie Stott

Published: March 28, 2026, 7:00 am

A finance coach unpacks how she retired at 40 – and the money advice she finds ‘irresponsible’

Bernadette Joy says everyone should have their own vision worth saving for – and stay on budget

• ‘The dreaded B-word’: how to start budgeting

Before she said a word about paying off debt or investing, financial educator Bernadette Joy would ask her clients to draw a picture of themselves in retirement. “Where are you? Who are you with? What are you doing?” she would ask.

No one drew themselves on a megayacht or private plane, Joy said. Instead, she saw depictions of nature and time spent with family.

Create a detailed vision of your dream retirement so you have a clear goal to work toward.

Calculate your investment target by multiplying your yearly expenses by 25.

If you have access to a 401(k), contribute as much as you can – unless you have credit card debt!

Keep a budget and live below your means.

Published: March 27, 2026, 4:00 pm

Experience: I’ve spent decades collecting over 260 postboxes

It started with an obscure railway postbox that had been thrown in a skip – now my museum has pieces from Scotland, Ireland and Hong Kong

Back in 1994, I went to north Wales to see the miniature steam trains – I was a fan of railways. On a platform at Rhyl station, I noticed the painted outline of a postbox – it was all that remained of one that had stood there since the late 1800s.

It turns out it had been vandalised, set alight and chucked in a skip. I asked the station manager if I could see it and he jokingly said: “Give me 20 quid and you can take it away with you.”

Published: March 27, 2026, 5:00 am

I was paid to write fake Google reviews – then my ‘bosses’ tried to scam me

Undercover reporter gets a taste of the sprawling fraud industry in which cryptocurrencies play a crucial role

• Five firms including Autotrader and Just Eat investigated over fake review failings

The holiday flat near(ish) the Roman ruins of Pompeii was “disgusting”, and smelled of “a mix of dampness and sewage”, according to one reviewer on Google Maps. I never visited, but I gave it five stars.

I did the same for a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel across the River Thames, an Ibis budget hotel in east London that is part of the Accor group, a central Travelodge and the nearby Hyatt Place – some of the best-known hotel brands in the world. Scattered in there were requests for reviews for hostels and B&Bs in Genova, Naples, Maastricht, Krakow and Brussels. For a few days I had a new job: writing fake reviews on Google Maps in exchange for cryptocurrency.

Published: March 27, 2026, 8:31 am

Motherhood, makeup and Zumba: the rehabilitation of one of Mexico’s most dangerous prisons

In Modulo 2, a renovated wing of a high-security facility in Cancún, female prisoners find moments of solidarity, pride and creativity in their confinement

At the end of a road in the city of Cancún, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, a tall watchtower rises behind barbed wire and perimeter walls closely monitored by the army. This is where the Cereso stands, a high-security prison complex housing a men’s facility as well as a section called Modulo 2 that is reserved for females. A total of 284 women are held there.

Inside, time moves slowly. Days unfold according to a strict schedule, structured around chores and workshops organised by the prison administration.

A morning Zumba session in the yard of the Cereso. Physical activities are part of the facility’s daily routine

Published: March 27, 2026, 6:00 am

The week around the world in 20 pictures

Crisis in the Middle East, a Russian drone attack in Lviv, cherry blossom in Tokyo and the return of BTS – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Published: March 27, 2026, 6:19 pm