KPop Demon Hunters fans screamed with glee, Adrien Brody grossed out the audience and Timothée Chalamet broke all the rules. The Guardian’s film critic on a gobsmackingly glamorous ceremony

• Key takeaways from Oscars 2026: horror wins, tech loses and politics is hard to ignore

These were the Oscars for a life during wartime. President Trump’s still-to-be-explained attack on Iran meant warnings of a possible retaliatory drone attack from Tehran on the target-rich environment of downtown Los Angeles. The glittering Dolby Theatre was reportedly in the crosshairs.

It didn’t happen. But this was a ceremony aware of the distant politics of threat, and the politics of a nation that is rich enough to afford war and peace at the same time.

The PM’s natural instinct to stay out of the Iran war has been a good one, but he is left speaking in code about US relations

It was a message that could just as easily have been given via a ministerial statement in the Commons. But Keir Starmer needs every break he can get at the moment and he wasn’t going to pass up the chance to look like a world leader at a press conference in Downing Street. The advantages were obvious. No need to have to listen to Kemi Badenoch drone on for five minutes with her revisionist fantasies in reply. Avoid the danger of loads of backbench MPs observing that President Trump is a deranged halfwit who doesn’t know what he’s doing.

But best of all a press conference was ideal because the American war with Iran is one of the few occasions when the prime minister’s judgment has been right all along. Just over two weeks in and it’s increasingly looking like the The Donald is only in the war for its entertainment value. Just last weekend, he was saying he might continue bombing Kharg Island for fun. For the lols and social media hits. There has never been a plan or a goal in mind. Not so long ago he was saying the Brits were late to the party and he didn’t need them anyway. Now he is begging for help in keeping the strait of Hormuz open.

The spectacular stage version of Studio Ghibli’s much-loved film has spent a year at the Gillian Lynne theatre in London. To celebrate, photographer Tristram Kenton was granted backstage access

The One Battle After Another star’s failure to collect his best supporting actor award – because he was visiting Ukraine – only serves to burnish his reputation

Last night’s Oscars might have been superficially modern (K-pop! Female cinematographers winning things! Jokes about YouTube interstitial advertising!), but there was one slightly charming old throwback: Sean Penn wasn’t there to collect his best supporting actor award.

Sure, this sort of thing happens all the time in other awards shows – you can barely get through a single Baftas without an A-lister revealing that they didn’t fancy braving the London winter – but not the Oscars. The Oscars are meant to represent the pinnacle of professional achievement. It’s your one chance to look all of your peers in the eye as one in the knowledge that you are better than the lot of them. Who’d turn down an opportunity that irresistible?

My therapist told me that anxiety is a bully and, like all bullies, it needs to be put in its place. To my relief, she knew exactly how to do it

The second half of 2011 was not a good time for me. Work was very stressful, and what had been gearing up to be the Great Summer Romance had slowly and painfully fizzled out. My mother was unwell, and I was going through a phase of really missing my father, who had died a few years before. It was the perfect, uninvited storm.

Before, when I’d gone through bad patches, I’d been able to dig myself out fairly quickly. Not this time. Suddenly, I was living in a state of high anxiety. I was still getting on with my life – going to work, going out – but anxiety was running the show. Having to make even the smallest decision would send me into a panic.

Bibby Boys photo exhibition documents experiences of the men who lived on the former asylum seeker vessel in Dorset and the local community that rallied around them

The Bibby Stockholm barge, which was moored off Portland, Dorset to accommodate asylum seekers, attracted many negative headlines – from evacuation after the discovery of legionella bacteria, to the suicide of Albanian asylum seeker Leonard Farruku and angry far-right protests.

But an exhibition launching this week reveals a less reported side of life on the barge, where enduring connections between asylum seekers and members of the local community were forged and continue long after the last group of asylum seekers left the vessel in November 2024.

PM refuses to be drawn into wider conflict as Germany and Italy defy Trump’s call to help reopen strait of Hormuz

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Keir Starmer has insisted that the UK will not be drawn into the wider war in the Middle East as European leaders ruled out sending warships to the strait of Hormuz.

In his clearest signal yet of the UK’s divergence from Donald Trump’s attack on Iran, the prime minister said he would stand firm in the face of US pressure despite the decision being “difficult, there’s no hiding that”.

US president lashes out at UK and others as European countries reject calls for assistance to reopen crucial shipping lane

• European countries reject Trump’s call for help to reopen strait of Hormuz

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

• Are fuel price increases making you cut back?

Continued from previous post:

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

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

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

White House seems to have failed to anticipate that Tehran would fight back by trying to impose costs on the west

• Middle East crisis – live updates

If there was a moment when the absence of a US strategy on Iran was exposed, then this was it. Donald Trump demanded on Saturday that the UK, China, France, Japan and others participate in a naval escort for oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz.

Despite launching the attack on Iran, with Israel, the White House does not seem to have fully anticipated what was likely to follow. Iran had few good military options for fighting back, but attacking US bases, US allies and merchant shipping in the Gulf was the most obvious response – to try to impose costs on the west.

Abbas Araghchi demands clarification on reports Saudi crown prince urged Donald Trump to ‘hit the Iranians hard’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Some Gulf states hosting US forces may be covertly encouraging the slaughter of Iranians, Iran’s foreign minister has claimed in a thinly-veiled attack on Saudi Arabia.

Abbas Araghchi demanded clarification on reports that Mohammed bin Salman was in regular private conversations with Donald Trump, urging the US president “to continue hitting the Iranians hard”.

Carlson in video claims the CIA is preparing a ‘crime report’ against him and alleges US agencies have read his texts

Tucker Carlson, the conservative US political commentator, has publicly expressed fear that he may be facing criminal charges for “acting as an agent of a foreign power” by communicating with people in Iran.

The former CNN and Fox News host, who has established an alternative media career as online talking head and interviewer, claimed in a video posted on X that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was preparing “a crime report” for the Trump administration’s justice department.

Deaths of student and sixth-former named as Juliette announced as long queues for antibiotics form at Canterbury campus

Cases of invasive meningitis have been confirmed at the University of Kent and three schools in an outbreak that has killed two young people and left 11 others in hospital.

One of the young people to have died was a student at the University of Kent, while the second was a sixth-former at Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school (QEGS) in Faversham.

Exclusive: Claire Earley’s son Rex spent six weeks in hospital after contracting E coli from contaminated lake

Realtime pollution alerts are needed across Windermere urgently, campaigners have said, as the mother of a seven-year-old boy who kayaked on the lake described how he nearly died after contracting a dangerous strain of E coli from contaminated water.

Claire Earley’s son Rex spent six weeks in hospital, and underwent two emergency operations, after a family kayaking trip on Windermere last August.

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

• Oscar winners 2026: the full list

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

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

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

Corporation’s lawyers argue expensive but ‘groundless’ litigation restricts ability to cover public figures

The BBC has asked a US court to throw out Donald Trump’s $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit over the way a documentary edited one of his speeches, warning that proceeding with the case would have a “chilling effect” on its reporting on the president.

In papers filed to the Florida court dealing with the case, the BBC’s US lawyers claimed Trump’s reputation had not been damaged by the documentary, given it aired in the UK a week before his re-election.

Reform UK’s deputy leader comments came as he was responding to questions raised about his own tax affairs

• UK politics live – latest updates

All Britons should do their best to pay the minimum tax possible, Reform UK’s deputy leader has argued as he dismissed a newspaper investigation over his own tax affairs as a smear.

Richard Tice, who was presenting a press conference on Monday about Reform’s claims to have saved large sums of money in the English councils it runs, faced questions about a Sunday Times story, which detailed a scheme the paper said had helped him avoid nearly £600,000 in corporation tax.

Time is running out to find agreement on areas such as tuition fees EU citizens would pay in Britain and rules for food safety

The EU is hoping to urgently reboot talks on the “reset” of relations with the UK as negotiations are in danger of foundering before a planned July summit.

At a public meeting of the EU-UK parliamentary partnership assembly in Brussels, the European Commission vice-president and trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, said both sides had to “change gears” now to ensure the deal got over the line.

Judge describes Nathan Bennett as ‘incorrigible and dangerous’ over string of offences including rape

A “dangerous paedophile” who sexually abused five children in his care at a nursery in Bristol has been jailed for 24 years.

Judge Hart described Nathan Bennett as “evil” and said that he had thought seriously about imposing a life sentence because it was difficult to assess whether he would ever not be a risk to children.

Trams, buses and hire bikes will be integrated under molten orange and asphalt black livery highlighting industrial heritage, says Oliver Coppard

• Business live – latest updates

South Yorkshire’s transport system will be known as the “People’s Network”, with trams, buses and hire bikes all coming under public control.

The plan was unveiled on Monday by the region’s mayor, Oliver Coppard, who said it would create an affordable, joined-up network in molten orange and asphalt black colours. A large fleet of electric buses and 25 new trams will be introduced over the next five years.

A letter from 15 critics to the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh condemns ‘divisive move’ that saw non-Scottish publications excluded from reviewing the musical’s press night

Theatre critics in Scotland have written to the Royal Lyceum theatre in Edinburgh condemning a “divisive” and “London-centric” decision to not invite reviews from UK national publications for its new musical version of One Day.

The show, based on the 2009 novel by David Nicholls, held a press night on Wednesday but only critics writing for Scottish publications were invited to review it. A separate press night for other critics is planned for a later date, when the show opens in London.

Donald Trump is pressuring European allies to protect the strait of Hormuz, warning that Nato faces a ‘very bad’ future if members fail to offer assistance.

The strait of Hormuz is one of the most important shipping routes in the world. A fifth of international oil supplies pass through the waterway, which has been disrupted since the start of the war.

Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent, Hannah Ellis-Petersen – watch on YouTube

James Timpson believes many women in prison shouldn’t be there – and a new board aims to bring about change

Pat had been in trouble with the police before, when she was 16 and had been spat out of the care system with no qualifications, no housing and no support. Nearly 50 years later, she heard a knock on the door again.

There had been a fire in the estate where she lived, and another resident said she had seen Pat start it. “I was in the police station for nearly two days before I got to the magistrates court,” she said, worrying one finger over the top of her hand. “The magistrate said he was sending it to the crown court, and sending me to prison, basically.”

The diversified Academy and a mutating industry have changed what many had come to expect from the stuffy, rule-following Oscars

Last year, as the major fall film festivals took place around the world, it was hard to make out the sound of audience applause. It wasn’t an attendance issue or that booing was heard instead (that’s solely a Cannes response), it was that, for many, hands were too busy wringing to find time to clap.

The trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto was once seen as an inescapable fixture on a film’s road to the Oscars. Best picture winners such as 12 Years a Slave, Spotlight, Birdman, Moonlight, The Shape of Water and Green Book all rose within that circuit and cemented their reception at festivals and world premieres and often felt judged for awards potential over quality. But over the past few years, as the Academy has changed and diversified its voting body and as the industry has changed in so many other ways, something has shifted. Winning films have come from Cannes, Sundance, SXSW and, most shockingly, no festival at all …

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

• Oscars 2026 winners: the full list

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

British version of the topical US comedy show will air live on Sky One and will be written in the week before broadcast

Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed have been named as the first three guest hosts of the UK spin-off of Saturday Night Live.

The first episode of the long-awaited British version of the US late-night comedy show will air live on Sky on 21 March.

Why did Brigitte Bardot, Farrah Fawcett and James Van Der Beek not warrant a mention when Michael Jackson did? The history of the Oscars tribute snubs says a lot about why some stars are gone but not forgotten

The Oscars in memoriam segment is a firmly lodged Academy tradition – albeit one that is not as longstanding as you might think, having only been introduced in 1994. Almost as established a tradition is that of the outcry following a major film industry figure being omitted from the segment. This year seemed particularly notable in that regard, with Brigitte Bardot, TV stars James Van Der Beek and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and the celebrated Bollywood actor Dharmendra among those left out, to varying levels of outrage on social media.

Critics of these omissions will usually imply they are down to forgetfulness or neglect on the part of the Academy. Such claims, though, overlook the fact that the in memoriam process is a painstaking one, adjudicated on by a committee tasked with whittling a longlist of hundreds down to a final list of around 30. As Bruce Davis, former executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences told the LA Times in 2010, the process “gets close to agonising by the end. You are dropping people who the public know. It’s just not comfortable.”

When Collette Boler was ordered to stop feeding a colony of feral cats in Thurnscoe, other animal lovers stepped in

“Two ladies from York have just been in,” said Collette Boler at the till of her small cafe in Thurnscoe, near Barnsley. Her voice began to choke up.

“They came in with a box of chocolates and a card, a box of cat food, a bag of cat biscuits and just said ‘carry on doing what you’re doing, you’re absolutely fabulous’. And a man’s just given me a tenner for cat food. It’s been incredible.”

After going platinum in the 90s and writing the South Park theme, bassist extraordinaire Claypool discusses the AI-themed concept album he’s made with Sean Ono Lennon

When Les Claypool wrote his first song for Primus in 1984, he faced a crisis of self-confidence. “I was too embarrassed to sing in my apartment,” he says on a video call. “But my roommate at the time was dating the preacher’s daughter, and had keys to the church across the street.” In the dead of night, the madcap bassist and singer took his recording equipment to the empty church, set up on the podium, and first sang his anti-war song Too Many Puppies, which recast soldiers as little dogs: “Too many puppies are being shot in the dark!”

It was the first oddball creation of many: Primus’s rubbery fusions of prog, metal and funk have made Claypool one of rock’s most unlikely success stories. Albums such as 1991’s Sailing the Seas of Cheese are cartoon lands filled with colourful misfits, largely drawn from Claypool’s upbringing in blue-collar California, and given voices inspired by Mel Blanc’s work for Looney Tunes. Today, Claypool has two platinum records, a legacy of influencing giants such as Deftones, and a global cult fanbase including Rush and Tom Waits. But his wackiness, along with his having written the South Park theme and popularised the fan catchphrase “Primus sucks”, has made it hard to peel off the label of class-clown. “There’s an iron hand in that velvet glove,” he promises.

They roam the workplace, promoting themselves loudly and incessantly – while undermining everyone else

Name: Office hookworms.

Age: A recent term for a very old complaint.

Whitworth, Manchester
Hokusai’s breathtaking woodblock print may be ubiquitous today but, as this startling show reminds us, it’s also an apocalyptic vision of a world about to change

The printed images made in Japan between the 17th and 20th centuries, known collectively as “pictures of the floating world”, could be bought from a local bookshop for about the price of a bowl of noodles. Collected casually, like posters or magazines, these mass-produced media started out as sexy, charming and dazzling snapshots of Tokyo high-life for the vicarious enjoyment of those who could not afford it. Manufactured by workshops of artists and artisans, they made professional works of art available to ordinary people for the first time. They’re breathtakingly beautiful, and they changed the history of art.

The first and most enduringly popular subjects for these collectible prints were famous actors from the kabuki theatreand beautiful women, typically courtesans from the brothel district of Yoshiwara. By introducing us to the denizens of the floating world, the first half of this dazzling exhibition sheds light on the dreams and desires that drive popular culture. Kunichika’s portrait of an actor in the role of a “heavenly being” is as heart-throbbing and as gender-bending as Rudolph Valentino in a bolero vest. A “fashionable beauty” caught by Eizan in the process of applying her lipstick, a delicately turned ankle visible through the gap in her marvellously rendered gown, is erotic in a way that is unavoidably (and by design) voyeuristic. You could imagine stumbling upon this half-dressed model, glimpsed through an open door, in the pages of Vogue Italia.

Hard choices lie ahead for Downing Street if higher fuel prices spark resentment and trigger a renewed cost of living crisis

Seventy years ago this winter, the streets of Britain fell eerily quiet. After one last panic buying spree, many garages shut, and traffic even in the heart of London dwindled away. The formal introduction of petrol rationing had begun, limiting drivers to 200 miles’ worth a month – with exceptions for farmers, doctors and vicars – after the Suez crisis blocked fuel supplies from the Gulf.

Ancient history now, of course – or it would be if it weren’t for what looks increasingly like the US’s own version of Suez: a great power starting a war it seemingly doesn’t know how to finish, against an enemy it woefully underestimated. If the strait of Hormuz – the vital shipping lane now rendered unsafe for shipping by Iranian drones and mines – cannot soon be reopened, then Britain could be only weeks away from needing to ration fuel, the former BP executive (and government adviser) Nick Butler warned on Monday morning.

The red carpet raises all kinds of questions. What is the age range of a feather boa? Sequins: mutton or lamb? In the face of the carping and scrutiny, Paltrow has issued a bold sartorial retort

The 50s are an awkward decade for women on the red carpet. So, the Oscars, being the ultimate red carpet, are like a dramatisation of the awks, a silent movie told in One Dress After Another. It’s complicated by the convention that “over 50” and “in her 50s” are the same category for Hollywood, the existence of a greater age being so anathema to the condition of womanhood that it’s more tactful not to mention it. Sigourney Weaver (76) is an “Oscars over 50”, as is Goldie Hawn (80).

The case of Hawn was particularly confusing this year. When she was pictured alongside her daughter, Kate Hudson (46), they became the same age, it being semantically easier to pretend that “nearly-50 to 100” is a continuous phase of woman than to brook the idea of an age beyond “middle”.

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

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

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

As negotiations enter a ninth month, an outcome is thought to be weeks away and the devil is still in the detail

It is two years since the shareholders of Thames Water threw in the towel, declared the company “uninvestible” and accepted their shares were worthless. Yet the water torture goes on and on. We are now in the ninth month of negotiations between Thames’s senior creditors and the regulator, Ofwat, on a rescue deal – and still an outcome is thought to be weeks away.

Monday’s updated sketch of the proposal contained a few new details. The amount of fresh equity that would be injected into Thames has increased from £3.15bn to £3.35bn. The day-one debt facility has been boosted by a billion pounds to £3.25bn. Ofwat also appears to have insisted creditors underwrite a further £3.3bn debt facility in case Thames, circa 2028, can’t raise borrowings from the market on commercial terms by then; that precaution is probably wise.

By imposing massive costs on the global economy, the Iranian government hopes to cause the US to back down

The US and Israeli decision to attack Iran has sent economic shockwaves around the world. About 20% of global oil supplies have been effectively blocked from transiting the strait of Hormuz since Iran began attacking ships, resulting in a huge jump in oil prices. Militarily, while the United States has the firepower to significantly reduce Iran’s capacity to strike ships in the strait, it is unlikely to be able to eliminate the threat entirely.

Reopening the strait, therefore, is not only a question of military capabilities but of diplomacy, and to negotiate it is necessary to understand what each party to the conflict is trying to achieve.

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

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

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

Nathalie Tocci is a Guardian Europe columnist

‘Churning and burning’ is the latest trend in fitness – and all you need is trainers and a bag of cream. This could be just the start of a culinary CrossFit

There is a new entry in the overstuffed “What fresh hell?” category for 2026 – people have started making butter while they run. “You may be asking yourself why,” content creator Libby Cope says in one of the videos that kicked off this weirdness (yes, yes I am); “The real question is why not?” She and her partner then pour cream and salt into double-bagged zip-lock sandwich bags, which they put into their backpacks, before setting off, “churning and burning”.

After a few miles, Cope opens her bag to reveal she has made a bit of butter. They have kept up this weird new hobby and, according to Runners World: “Now, the couple has more butter than they know what to do with.” (Do they know how much butter costs these days? Sell it!)

The US has overwhelming military power. Yet the battle has moved to oil routes, alliances and domestic politics – where Tehran is testing western unity

Donald Trump would like you to know that he is winning the war with Iran. So comprehensively, in fact, that he now needs Nato’s help. The western alliance, he warns, will have a “very bad” future if its members refuse. Germany’s defence minister had a brisk reply: this is not our war. Meanwhile, tankers pile up outside the strait of Hormuz as Britain promises, in an understated way, to keep “looking” at its options. Mr Trump has found out that starting a war without a coalition of the willing is easier than finishing one with it.

Along with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, the US president started with an illegal attack on Iran in which the country’s supreme leader was assassinated. American forces have established overwhelming military superiority. By hitting military targets but sparing key oil facilities on Kharg Island, Mr Trump is sending a blunt signal: the US can wreck Iran’s economy. It just hasn’t decided to – yet.

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.

Huge vehicles are popular with drivers, but their wider impacts on road safety and the environment must be tackled

No one who walks, cycles or drives around London, or many of the world’s big cities, could fail to notice the vastly increased size of the typical car. A type of vehicle once associated with rural settings and outdoor lifestyles is now ubiquitous. Heavily marketed as sports utility vehicles (SUVs), supersize cars are among the key consumer trends of recent decades. In 2022, they accounted for 46% of global new car sales.

For manufacturers, these vehicles are big earners due to higher profit margins. For those inside them, they offer more space and a higher vantage point. But for those on the outside, SUVs have obvious downsides. The threat that they pose to pedestrians is one. Research shows that children are 77% more likely to die if struck by an SUV compared with other cars, due to their size and structure – particularly their raised bonnets. This finding was highlighted in an announcement from the London mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, that such risks are being scrutinised as part of a wider review into SUVs’ environmental impact. This evidence will provide the basis for policy proposals that are expected to include higher charges for owners.

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.

Readers respond to articles by Zoe Williams and Clive Lewis about the party’s popularity crisis

Zoe Williams’s conjecture that pragmatism might be the solution to Labour’s polling woes is surely a triumph of hope over experience. (There is no denying Labour is in crisis – but in a strange way, Keir Starmer is equipped to save it, 12 March). Disavowal of ideology in favour of pragmatism is the precise cause of the apparent aimlessness and inability to convey Labour’s mission that she describes, compounded by unforced policy errors, U-turns and poor judgment. Labour members may well be discussing whether Keir Starmer should be tacking more to the left, but the underlying question remains whether he is the right person to lead a party that needs, as she says, a complete step change in orientation in the new multiparty environment.

Unlike Andy Burnham, for example, he has shown no interest in either proportional representation or cross-party collaboration to defeat the far right. The future of both the party and country are more important than the fate of any individual leader. With electoral disaster forecast for May, Labour MPs are increasingly likely to be considering that the best medicine for the party’s current malaise might be Starmer replacement therapy.
Dr Anthony Isaacs
London

Melissa Hayhurst says the government should ensure children are getting the support they need instead of attacking the lawyers helping parents

The claim by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, that lawyers are “exploiting” parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is not only wrong, it is deeply insulting to the thousands of families who are forced to rely on legal advice simply to secure the support their children are already entitled to under the law (Report, 13 March).

I am one of those parents. My daughter Jessica has complex needs and is unable to speak or communicate. Like many families across the country, we depend on the legal protections within the Send framework to ensure that she receives the education, care and support she requires.

Baby lies | Fuel price fairness | Gut feelings | Fifa fiasco | Human connection | Cooking instructions

When gently asked about a pen scribble in a picture book “Goodness, I wonder who did that?”, 27-month-old Emily confidently retorted “Nancy!” – our miniature dachshund (Little liars: babies younger than one practise deceit, study suggests, 16 March).
Dianne Ball
Nottingham

• The government’s fuel duty is set, but the VAT element is a percentage of the retail price. Reducing VAT, perhaps to zero, could be a way to show an intent for fuel price “fairness” and avoid accusations that the government is profiteering, as it is suggesting that others might be (Watchdog puts UK fuel retailers ‘on notice’ over profiteering from Iran war, 12 March).
Mic Porter
Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear

Sue Morgan of SongBird Survival warns of dangers such as fur left out for nesting birds by well-meaning pet owners

I was pleased to read Stephen Moss’s account of blue tits starting to sing in his garden as they gear up for nesting season (Birdwatch: Blue tits are feisty and fascinating but often taken for granted, 11 March). But while blue tits remain a familiar sight, they, along with many other garden birds, now face a growing number of hidden threats in the very place we imagine them to be safest: our gardens.

Scientific research funded by SongBird Survival has shown how everyday gardening choices can have serious consequences. Around a third of UK gardeners use pesticides, and our studies found that house sparrow numbers, for example, were nearly 40% lower in gardens where the pesticide metaldehyde was used.

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Peep! Peep! Peep! Here we go!

The teams are on their way out …

Pep Guardiola’s team have ground down other title contenders in the past with their relentless winning streaks. But those days appear to have gone

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This has been a strange season for Manchester City. Every now and then, they’ve threatened to produce the sort of run that used to define them. They won eight games in a row from the end of November to the end of December, then six in a row in February. At which point the tendency has been for a sort of mental muscle memory to kick in and to think that, even if they haven’t been playing that well, even if this doesn’t look like the City sides of old, this is the start of one of those relentless bouts of form that has ground down challengers in the past. After all, some of those past runs began uncertainly.

But this is a very different City. Even Pep Guardiola sounded bemused after Saturday’s draw with West Ham, noting how “in the past always we found the way to win this kind of game … this season, the fact that we didn’t score goals for the amount of chances, it’s punished us”. He seemingly had no explanation for that, muttering about the “unfairness” of the world that his side had not got the results he feels their football has deserved.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.

• Club also hit with nine-month academy transfer ban

• Investigation covered period between 2011 and 2018

Chelsea have been fined £10.75m, handed a suspended ban from signing first-team players and given an immediate nine-month academy transfer ban by the Premier League over breaches of financial rules during Roman Abramovich’s ownership.

The club, who still face potential sanctions from the Football Association over 74 charges of breaching agent regulations, were investigated by the league over undisclosed payments to agents, non-licensed intermediaries and other figures, including players, around signings between 2011 and 2018.

• ‘No one cares about you,’ says Lancashire all-rounder

• The 32-year-old alleges England group is too cliquey

Liam Livingstone has given a scathing account of his handling by the current England regime, claiming “no one cares about you”. The Lancashire all-rounder has exactly 100 caps for his country across all three formats but has not featured in more than a year and seems resigned to things staying that way.

In an interview with Cricinfo, the 32-year-old was highly critical of interactions with the director of cricket, Rob Key, and described his time at the Champions Trophy last year as “the worst experience I’ve had playing cricket” and said he did not miss being part of the recent T20 World Cup.

From the brilliance of Bielle-Biarrey to Carré’s jaw-dropping try, our highs and lows from a sensational championship

Player of the tournament Impossible to look past Louis Bielle-Biarrey who, among assorted records, has become the first player to score a try in every Six Nations game in successive seasons. But Italy’s Tommaso Menoncello and Ireland’s Stuart McCloskey also deserve a podium place.

• Briton has post-viral symptons after February illness

• She is still without a permanent coach

Emma Raducanu has sustained another significant setback as she opted to withdraw from the Miami Open due to illness. Raducanu struggled with a virus throughout February, suffering poor opening round losses in Doha and Dubai. She is said to still have post-viral symptoms.

Raducanu had been due to compete in Miami as the 24th seed and she received a first-round bye, meaning she would not have played until Thursday or Friday. However, the 23-year-old decided not to wait until the last minute before making a decision on her participation.

• Mercedes chief points to number of overtakes in China

• ‘All the indicators say that people love it’

Toto Wolff has dismissed criticism of the new Formula One regulations from Max Verstappen as a result of the “horror show” Red Bull car the four-time world champion is having to drive.

Verstappen has not been alone in his outspoken criticism of the new rules, and after he was forced to retire from the Chinese GP on Sunday he delivered his most damning condemnation yet of the emphasis on electrical energy deployment and recovery.

The club by the lake are far from universally popular but the Como manager’s clever tactics brought a key win over Roma

For once the TV cameras at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia had not picked out a Hollywood A-lister in the stands, but a celebrity of calcio instead. Gennaro Gattuso, the Italy manager, as well as a World Cup and Champions League winner, had come to watch Como play Roma.

A crucial game in the race for Europe, the teams having started the weekend level in fourth place. And still a slightly surprising one for Gattuso to pick. Not because it lacked the history and traditional importance of Lazio’s game against Milan later that evening, but because Como do not have any Italian players for him to watch.

Sonia Bompastor ‘a bit sad’ at League Cup changes while Andrée Jeglertz steels Manchester City for season’s climax

Sonia Bompastor said losing the opportunity to play in the League Cup was a “bit sad,” but she understood the reason for excluding teams that qualify for the Champions League next season. With Chelsea rarely outside the European places the Blues’ 2-0 League Cup final victory over Manchester United on Sunday may well be their last foray in the competition for some time. “I think I understand the reason why the decision is made,” she said after goals from Lauren James and Aggie Beever-Jones secured the win. “For a club like Chelsea, we are playing a lot of games, our schedule is busy, so I understand the reason behind the decision. As much as we want to be competing in every competition and going as far as possible and grabbing as many titles and trophies as possible, I understand. Of course, when you have one competition that is probably going away from you it’s a bit sad.” Suzanne Wrack

The Trump administration has sought to end most enrollment in the program – and tried to strip the status from a string of countries

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Donald Trump drew a backlash on Sunday for suggesting US efforts to protect the Strait of Hormuz were unnecessary – and that “maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all” because his country has plenty of oil of its own.

The president made the contradictory comment to reporters on Air Force One after pleading with European and Nato allies to enter the war in Iran to help the US secure the strait amid the largest oil supply disruption in history.

Effective closure of strait of Hormuz also affecting Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, which have brought in crisis measures

Sri Lanka is introducing a shorter four-day working week to preserve its shrinking fuel and gas reserves, as the Middle East conflict continues to severely disrupt energy supplies in the region.

Countries across south Asia are facing crippling shortages of fuel and LPG gas, which are used for everything from home cooking to cremating bodies, as most supplies have been held up in the Gulf since the US and Israel began bombing Iran.

Ten million people left without power in latest of outages that sparked violent protest last weekend

Cuba’s national electric grid has collapsed, the country’s grid operator has said, leaving approximately 10 million people without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the island’s already obsolete generation system.

The grid operator, UNE, said on social media on Monday that it was investigating the causes of the blackout, the latest in a series of widespread outages that last for hours or days and that last weekend sparked a rare violent protest in the communist-run country.

Heat warnings are in effect across region as record-high temperatures are forecast in California, Nevada and Arizona

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Millions of people in the western US are preparing for extreme heat as unprecedented temperatures are forecast across California, Nevada and Arizona.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a heat advisory for California’s Bay Area and central coast regions as temperatures are expected to reach up to 90F (32C).

Candidates look for deals with rivals to boost chances as major seats including Paris, Marseille and Lyon appear tight

Political parties in France are hastily attempting to negotiate strategic alliances before the final round of local elections this weekend, after a strong showing by the far right and the radical left.

This Sunday’s final-round vote for mayors and local councillors in major cities including Marseille, Lyon and Paris is expected to be close.

The Trump administration’s cuts to biodiversity funding have imperiled species, habitats and the people who defend both. Now the world is seeking a new way forward

On 22 January 2024, at the inauguration of the current Liberian president, Joseph Boakai, the US-based Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh Wesley paid tribute to the west African nation’s tropical forests – one of the places where, she said, “our fathers came / centuries ago, and planted our umbilical cords / deep in the soil”.

The forests of Liberia are among the most diverse on the planet, home not only to humans and their ancestral ties but also to rare species such as forest elephants, pygmy hippopotamuses and western chimpanzees. They are also chronically threatened by industrial development, including illegal logging and mining.

Recording of humpback whale from 1949 could also provide new understanding of how the huge animals communicate

A haunting whale song discovered on decades-old audio equipment could open up a new understanding of how the huge animals communicate, according to researchers who say it is the oldest such recording known.

The song is that of a humpback whale, a marine giant beloved by whale watchers for its docile nature and spectacular leaps from the water, and was recorded by scientists in March 1949 in Bermuda, said researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

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

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

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

Parts of US face another winter storm with severe conditions also pushing into Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland

Nearly two months since a major storm brought widespread heavy snow and freezing rain to eastern parts of the US, a new winter storm is sweeping across north-eastern US states and south-eastern Canada.

An area of low pressure, which first developed in north-western parts of the US late last week, intensified rapidly as it pushed north-east through central parts of the US.

Borrowers coming off fixed deals hit hard as Savills says big spike in interest payments made up half the overall rise

UK households spent a record £226bn to keep a roof over their heads last year, figures showed on Monday, with mortgage borrowers finishing fixed-rate deals particularly hard hit by rising payments.

Overall housing costs have gone up by £66bn over the past five years, a rise of 41%, the property group Savills said.

Pat McFadden unveils £1bn youth employment scheme and appeals to backbenchers who rebelled last year

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Labour MPs have no reason to oppose a fresh government attempt to overhaul the welfare system, the work and pensions secretary has said, as he unveiled a £1bn youth employment scheme.

The announcement by Pat McFadden, who said the public wanted the system to promote work and “value for money”, is regarded as a prelude to a renewed effort to change the welfare system after plans by his predecessor, Liz Kendall, were blocked by a Labour backbench rebellion last year.

Immersive exhibition will form the centrepiece of the celebration of the artist’s 90th birthday next year

Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall will be transformed into an immersive opera house as it plays host to an exhibition featuring the sets David Hockney designed for productions of works by Mozart, Wagner and Stravinsky dating back to the 1970s.

The art form might be considered passé by Timothée Chalamet, but Tate is to use the sets as the centrepiece of its celebration of Hockney’s 90th birthday in 2027.

Poll of students of all faiths and none found almost a quarter had seen Jews targeted for their religion or ethnicity

One in five students would be reluctant to, or would never, houseshare with a Jewish student, according to a survey by the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) that says antisemitism has “become normalised” on UK campuses.

A UJS poll of 1,000 students “of all faiths and none” found almost a quarter (23%) have seen behaviour that targets Jewish students for their religion or ethnicity and nearly half (47%) have witnessed justification of the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

Lawyer for women who accused bank of facilitating their sexual abuse calls settlement ‘one more step’ to justice

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Bank of America has settled a civil lawsuit brought by women who accused the bank of facilitating their sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, court records showed on Monday.

Lawyers for the bank and the women told Manhattan-based US district judge Jed Rakoff in a 12 March telephone call that they had reached a “settlement in principle”, a court filing said. The terms of the settlement were not immediately clear.

A German tourist filed a lawsuit claiming he felt unpleasant symptoms after eating tacos with salsa at Los Tacos No 1

A German tourist’s attempt to pursue $100,000 in damages from a New York City taqueria whose salsa he found to be too spicy has failed after a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit.

In a complaint filed in October 2024, German national Faycal Manz said he was visiting New York City two months earlier when he stopped at the Times Square location of Los Tacos No 1.

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

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

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

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

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

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

PwC called in as administrators after company runs out of cash, leaving it unable to pay landlords and creditors

National Car Parks, the UK’s biggest car park operator, has fallen into administration, putting nearly 700 jobs at risk.

NCP’s board of directors called in PwC as administrators after it ran out of cash, leaving it unable to pay its landlords and creditors, with significant rent payments due at the end of March.

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

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

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

Agrichemical group will open a research centre in Berkshire, in a move hailed by UK government as ‘clear’ vote of confidence

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Syngenta is to build a new £100m research centre for agricultural bioscience, a move hailed by the government as a vote of confidence in the UK’s science base.

The Chinese-owned company, one of the biggest agrichemical groups in the world, will open the centre at its Jealott’s Hill site in Berkshire to host hundreds of scientists.

Hummus and pet grooming also join list of goods and services used to help judge the impact of rising prices

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The UK’s increasing sobriety will be recognised from next month in the basket of goods used to calculate inflation after alcohol-free beer was added to a list by the Office for National Statistics totalling 760 items.

Hummus and pet grooming were also included in the list of goods and services used to help judge the impact of rising prices on the cost of living.

The final series of the BBC’s sharp sendup of boarding school in the UK is a riot of sex, scandals and final exams. This is striking, charming TV that has been impressive from first to last

Daniel Lawrence Taylor’s teen drama Boarders is a bit of a Trojan horse. From the aesthetic, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a shiny CBBC comedy. But the series, which follows a group of Black, inner-city teens through the looking-glass into an elite boarding school, is a sharp satire of these institutions. It doesn’t just take aim at the pomp and tradition of British boarding schools – although there’s plenty of familiar sending up of rugby lads. It also goes further to explore the range of incredibly complex dynamics that emerge every day for Black people in elite institutions.

Take its first two seasons, which took an unexpectedly cynical look at the business of diversity, equality and inclusion. After the teens enrol at the fictional St Gilbert’s, it quickly emerges that their scholarship programme is an attempt to rehabilitate the school’s image, which took a knock after a pupil poured champagne on a homeless man.

Producer, musician and record label executive who worked with artists such as John Mayall, Eric Clapton and Fleetwood Mac

For the young generation that grew up in Britain in the 1940s and 50s, a country of grey skies and mostly grey music, to hear the voices of original African-American R&B artists such as Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley, Little Richard and James Brown was to be shown a land of gold. From Bolton to Bexhill-on-Sea, teenagers went prospecting for it: haunting specialist record shops, starting fanzines and creating fly-by-night record labels for illicit reissues.

That was exactly how the record producer and music executive Mike Vernon, who has died aged 81, began a lengthy career that helped to introduce the world to artists such as John Mayall, Eric Clapton and Fleetwood Mac.

Jeremy Piven is a celebrity hypnotist leading a client into dangerous waters in this Manchester-set affair also starring Pixie Lott and Aneurin Barnard

If films had past lives, Simeon Halligan’s memory-regression thriller might have been a glossy 90s psychological drama, a Twilight Zone episode, or even a tricksy Hitchcockian voyage. But in the 2020s, it gets to be a serviceable, low-budget Brit-pulp outing featuring Jeremy Piven who, where other big-name buy-ins might have phoned it in, authoritatively anchors the affair as a celebrity hypnotist leading a client into dangerous waters.

Traumatised Manchester journalist Jason (Aneurin Barnard, soon to be seen as the titular character in Duncan Jones’s Rogue Trooper) is to return to Syria, where six years earlier he witnessed jihadists slit a colleague’s throat. Probably a bad idea then, just before setting off, to volunteer on live TV to be hypnotised by Timothy Bevan (Piven), who claims to allow punters to access past incarnations. Jason is promptly transported into a scarlet, doorway-lined hall of horrors; one portal opens on to a scene of a horrific stabbing apparently committed by his previous self. So pregnant wife Claira (Pixie Lott) presses him to return to Bevan to get this door definitively locked and bolted.

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

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

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

Mark Sowerby battles bad feelings by tackling brutal channel crossings – the Oceans Seven – around the world

The title of this invigorating documentary about open-water swimming seems at first to be a wry note-to-self regarding something competitors essentially have no control over: the possibility of becoming shark food. But, as practised by Australian waterman Mark Sowerby, it turns out to a surprisingly deep and empowering maxim about choosing to accept apprehensions and fears, and not being picked off by one’s inner vulnerabilities.

Sowerby is that oft-spotted species: the investment banker seeking redemption. Adrift among the 1%, he pivots to long-distance swimming and makes a traumatic crossing of the English Channel in 2015. Then his company becomes chum for short-sellers. His self-esteem in tatters, depression swallows him up. Realising he can process the trauma with intensive pool time, Sowerby decides that completing the other six stages of the “Oceans Seven” – a set of brutal channel crossings around the globe – is the tonic he needs.

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

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

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

The stars of the smash hit Birmingham-set series tell all to Edith Bowman. Plus, the shocking 1969 Israeli plan to secretly transfer 60,000 Palestinians to Paraguay

Ahead of the release of the Peaky Blinders film, Edith Bowman and Packy Lee (who played Johnny Dogs) present an in-depth look at the series. Astonishingly, given it’s made by – and viewable on – Netflix, it works well in both audio and video form. From erudite chats with creator Steven Knight about 19th-century masculinity to Cillian Murphy going deep on the research he did to play Tommy Shelby, it’s a nice companion piece for fans. Alexi Duggins
Widely available, episodes weekly

The singer and actor, formerly of Savages, was shaken up by Le Tigre and gets emotional when hearing Fontaines DC, but which rapper can she no longer bear to listen to?

The first song I fell in love with
I had an incredible piano teacher, who would play me a lot of jazz records that I would learn and sing along to. Chet Baker was charismatic, good looking and stylish. Even though I had a really soft, small voice, I’d give My Funny Valentine my best shot.

The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
Dollar Days by David Bowie, because I had to perform it recently at the British Library for the 10-year anniversary of his final album, Blackstar.

Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff
Joan Tower’s concerto for alto saxophone was brilliantly delivered by Steven Banks, part of a lively concert

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales is marking the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in a series of concerts, and the UK premiere of Love Returns, by the 87-year-old American composer Joan Tower, was at the centre of this programme with Finnish conductor Tomas Djupsjöbacka.

Tower is best known for her Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman and, in this work, a concerto for alto saxophone, she has realised an uncommonly appealing piece. Its title relates to Tower’s use of a melody from her piano piece, Love Letter, written in memory of her late husband, as the basis for a theme and variations structure, as different from conventional concerto form as can be, evolving and gradually accelerating in tempo over its whole span of six sections. The only departure from this is in the fifth of the six: a solo saxophone cadenza, brilliantly delivered by soloist Steven Banks. His sometimes edgy, sometimes honeyed tone was wonderfully expressive throughout, whirling virtuoso passagework countered by aching lyricism, with Djupsjöbacka ensuring that Tower’s orchestral textures offered the optimal balance to the solo lines.

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
Receiving its UK premiere in a programme with Britten and Walton, Nico Muhly’s trumpet concerto is inspired by the instrument’s biblical – sometimes apocalyptic – associations

Audiences can be fickle. The Hallé’s latest programme featured one of the world’s most celebrated trumpeters, a UK premiere from one of the world’s most high-profile living composers, and one of this country’s most successful young conductors – yet the Bridgewater Hall yawned with empty seats. Whatever the reasons, those who decided against booking missed an exhilarating evening.

It started politely enough, with the rollicking baroquery of Britten’s Courtly Dances from Gloriana. A set of Tudorbethan pastiches, these dances encourage orchestral good behaviour. But conductor Alpesh Chauhan also allowed glimpses of a harsher, modernist world outside in the viciously chirrupping winds and off-kilter repetitions of the central Morris Dance and the gleeful snaps and rattles of the closing Lavolta.

As Emerald Fennell’s film sparks debate, we celebrate the pioneering brilliance of the siblings’ work

This was the first novel that Charlotte Brontë completed. It was rejected by publishers nine times. Written in the voice of a male narrator, William Crimsworth, it offers a downbeat story of everyday middle-class striving as the protagonist travels to Brussels to establish his career as a teacher. But the last publisher to see it thought it showed promise, despite being too short and insufficiently “striking and exciting”. Had the author anything else to offer? Luckily, Jane Eyre – which amply supplied the earlier book’s deficiencies – was already in train and was soon accepted with alacrity. Although The Professor remained unpublished in Charlotte’s lifetime, she continued to believe that it was “as good as I can write”; its subtly ironised male voice reveals her underlying literary sophistication.

The actor led the starry book deals, while publishers assessed whether US-style bans are spreading to the UK

The annual London book fair wrapped on Thursday, marking the end of three days that saw 33,000 people connected to the book industry – agents, publishers, authors, among others – gather at Olympia to make deals and discuss the state of the publishing world, and its future. Here’s our roundup of the biggest deals, trends and takeaways from the fair.

The starriest book deal of the week was a new thriller series co-authored by Idris Elba, featuring an MI6 field operative who gets deployed to Mauritius to investigate an attempted murder. Elsewhere, rights were scooped for Alex Ferguson’s first autobiography in 13 years, broadcaster Mishal Husain’s debut children’s book, and the story of designer Paul Smith’s life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scientists in the US have uploaded a fruit fly to a computer simulation, while an Australian lab has taught neurons on a glass chip to play a 90s video game. How long before we are all living in a sci-fi movie?

It sounds like the opening of a sci-fi film, but US scientists recently uploaded a copy of the brain of a living fly into a simulation. In San Francisco, biotechnology company Eon Systems created a virtual insect that knew how to walk, fly, groom and feed in its virtual environment. Researchers in Australia, meanwhile, have taught a petri dish containing 200,000 human brain cells to play the iconic 90s shooter Doom. One experiment has pushed a brain into a computer; the other has plugged a computer into brain cells.

Both stories have been hailed as scientific breakthroughs, but have also sparked inevitable fears about the prospects of lab-grown humans and digital clones. Should we be concerned?

From war zones and socially virtuous farming to ever-changing boards and role-playing with 167 dice, here’s our pick of the most absorbing table-based entertainment

Video games have long been heavily inspired by physical games, from chess and Scrabble to Dungeons & Dragons. The deck-building collectible card game, for example, has become immensely popular in digital form, thanks to hits such as Slay the Spire, Marvel Snap and Balatro. Now, an increasing number of games are going in the opposite direction, trading pixels for pieces and screens for spinners. Here are six of our favourites.

Company of Heroes 2nd Edition (Bad Crow Games, £119.70)

Josh Wardle hopes his digital take on the cryptic crossword can be a gradual on-ramp crossing the cultural divide between Britain and the US

In 2021, Josh Wardle became a household name almost overnight. His digital game, Wordle, turned a simple guessing game into a global morning ritual: six guesses, one word, and a grid of coloured squares shared across social media feeds.

It became a cultural phenomenon; bought within months by the New York Times for a seven-figure sum.

Last year’s celebrated French hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is nominated in 12 categories this year, with Ghost of Yōtei, Dispatch, Death Stranding 2 and Indiana Jones also making strong showings

The 22nd Bafta games awards are coming up in April, and the 2026 nominations list is dominated by the impeccably stylish French breakout hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 which has 12 nominations, and has already won game of the year prizes at the UK’s Golden Joysticks last November, December’s Game awards in the US and February’s Dice awards in Las Vegas.

Dispatch, a game about a benched superhero roped into running a team of superpowered misfits at a call centre, has nine nominations. Among them is a best performer in a leading role nod for its star Aaron Paul, and one for Jeffrey Wright in a supporting role. Sony’s samurai epic Ghost of Yōtei came out with eight nominations, including best game and best performer in a leading role for Erika Ishii, who plays Atsu.

Palais Garnier, Paris
Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple’s Arena spills off the stage while Morau’s equally audacious Étude has balletic body snatchers

What a joy to find Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple given full run of the grandiose Palais Garnier. The sparky duo from London, known as Jess and Morgs, bring their audacious blend of choreography and live camerawork to a gripping new creation, Arena, with video design by Jakub Lech. It peaks with a bravura sequence in which Loup Marcault-Derouard leaves the stage and is seen on a huge screen, racing around the opera house’s imposing halls and staircase. Arena gives the sense of choreographers in a candy store, seizing the real estate newly available to them after their hit, tech-centric reboot of Coppélia for Scottish Ballet in 2022.

The piece opens with understated, percussive coolness and shades of A Chorus Line – an athletic squad limber up with individual and collective confidence. “Next please!” barks the voiceover and a camera operator glides down the queue, capturing beady eyes, beating chests, glistening sweat. In the age of Instagram, dancers are ever-ready for their closeups and here the port de bras frequently results in tightly framed faces – but Arena exposes the perils of chronically online culture and the urge to compete, compare and conform. There is a gladiatorial element to Annemarie Woods’ costumes yet this is a dystopian contest that also feels rooted in the present day.

The Glasshouse, Gateshead
Conductor John Wilson and players delivered an Enigma Variations that veered between whispers and full-throttle intensity. Soloist Alexandre Kantorow, too, proved a master of extremes with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3

Once upon a time, a young man from Gateshead went to London to study music, established his own orchestra and gained a reputation for impeccably turned out performances of Hollywood musicals and symphonic jazz. Fast forward a few decades and John Wilson is still hand-picking musicians and still serving up performances so polished they leave critics scrabbling for superlatives.

These days Wilson’s main outfit is the Sinfonia of London, and he is as likely to be conducting the symphonic mainstream as showtunes. But fresh from collecting the conductor award at the 2026 RPS awards, and on stage at the Glasshouse for the Sinfonia of London’s official first performance as an artistic partner of the Gateshead venue, this local lad made good remains an irrepressible entertainer.

Sadler’s Wells East, London
Russell Maliphant Dance Company’s arresting evening of three solos includes a spiritual offering performed by the choreographer himself

Watching Daniel Proietto dance Afterlight must be one of the best ways you could spend 15 minutes. This beautifully arresting piece of dance is the antidote to stimulation overload: one single smooth thread of movement finely spun across the spare piano chords of Erik Satie’s Gnossiennes. As Proietto circles into deep backbends bathed in a pool of light, it’s like a 21st-century Dying Swan.

This evening of work by choreographer Russell Maliphant comprises only three solos. With Maliphant, nothing is in excess, everything is deliberate: every motion, every pause, every flicker of light; never more than is needed. Maliphant is a Royal Ballet-trained dancer who also studied martial arts and creates meditative, mesmeric works of dance and light in synthesis (lighting designers Michael Hulls and Panagiotis Tomaras are key parts of the creative process).

For fans, this programme comes with a wave of nostalgia. Afterlight was made for a Diaghilev-inspired evening at Sadler’s Wells in 2009. Another solo dates further back, Two, created in 1997 originally for Maliphant’s wife, Dana Fouras, here performed by Alina Cojocaru.

Barbican, London
Judith Weir’s salute to the Indian monsoon kicked off a concert on nature and folk themes, Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son brought poetic flourishes to works by Bartók and Finzi, while the magical Firebird made a rousing finale

The environment took centre stage in a BBC Symphony Orchestra programme that journeyed from Judith Weir and the arid plains of India to Gerald Finzi and the rolling contours of the North Hampshire Downs. Bartók just about ticked the box thanks to the nocturnal sounds of the Hungarian steppe conjured up in his final piano concerto, while Stravinsky’s Firebird struts its stuff around the villainous King Koschei’s enchanted garden.

With Weir’s The Welcome Arrival of Rain, it was the notes on the page that came first. Only latterly did she associate the music with the arrival of the monsoon bringing much-needed water to the parched earth. Glittering fanfares swooped heavenwards answered by shimmering strings before tom-toms and timpani turbocharged an extended series of variations. Sakari Oramo ensured the orchestra shone, even if the promised deluge never quite materialised.

Swift leads with 1.6m vinyl sales of The Life of a Showgirl in 2025 while Sabrina Carpenter and Kendrick Lamar round out the LP charts

For the first time in over four decades, US vinyl sales have topped $1bn in annual revenue.

Vinyl purchases reached $1.04bn in 2025, per a new report by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) published on 16 March. It marks the 19th consecutive year of growth for the format that was once considered a niche interest.

Magnusson’s 2017 bestseller The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning turned the Scandinavian decluttering practice into a global phenomenon

Swedish author and artist Margareta Magnusson, whose book on “death cleaning” became a global phenomenon, has died aged 92.

Magnusson’s 2017 book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, introduced international readers to the concept of döstädning – the practice of sorting through and giving away possessions in later life so that family members are not left with the burden of doing so after one’s death.

Architect whose cultural projects included the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester and the remodelling of St Luke’s church for the LSO

When men first walked on the moon in 1969, “space age” design began to percolate into mainstream architecture. One of the most literal and dramatic interpretations of this futuristic trend was the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester, a heptagonal theatre-in-the-round contained in an ultra-modern structure of tubular steel and glass inspired by Nasa’s lunar lander. A key member of its design team was Axel Burrough, of Levitt Bernstein Architects, who has died aged 79.

The theatre module, which Burrough designed with David Levitt and Malcolm Brown, squats within the imposing neo-classical confines of the historic Royal Exchange. When the Exchange finally ceased trading in 1968, its grade two listed status ruled out conventional uses and refurbishment strategies, but it could be made to accommodate a building-within-a-building, conjuring a compelling visual and experiential contrast between old and new.

As big tech continues to dominate the film industry, Video StoreAge is a uniquely crafted company that works with film-makers to sell independent films on USB drives

The streaming-skeptical cinephile faces a dilemma in 2026, especially when it comes to watching movies at home. Increasingly, movies are available via rentals that funnel money to mega-corporations including Amazon or Apple; digital “purchases” from those same companies that can actually be revoked at any moment; or, most enticingly but still somewhat inconveniently, well-curated physical media special editions that treat films with the respect they deserve (sometimes even respect they don’t, depending on the title) while taking up a lot of shelf space and hitting your wallet hard. Plus, as vinyl aficionados know, bespoke physical media can also be severely limited in terms of where you can actually play it. Basically, almost everyone in the home-video space is trying to either be Amazon or the Criterion Collection.

Ash Cook, the former Sundance programmer who founded the new distributor Video StoreAge (pronounced like “storage”), is trying to figure out a third way. He described Video StoreAge’s products – indie movies sold on USB drives – as “like a DVD in the present tense. It’s a way to have a physical copy of a movie, but in this case you can play it on your computer. It has digital utility.” Like almost anything else these days, Video StoreAge is available as a subscription, with quarterly collections of five features and five shorts. The first drop includes Vera Drew’s buzzed-about The People’s Joker, a homemade superhero comedy that reappropriates many elements of the Batman mythos into a trans coming-out story. (Honestly, it’s more fun than those Joaquin Phoenix movies and might understand the Joker character better, too.) But they also sell single films, including Drew’s, or any combinations of available films as a sort of digital indie-movie mix tape on those format-flexible USB drives. (The quarter’s shorts package is included with every movie regardless, an automatic special feature.)

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

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

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

The comedian Graeme Garden celebrated and a look at misdirecting geographic capitals

Sometimes our puzzles have themes; sometimes they don’t. A solver might notice some of the themes while others may pass them by: it doesn’t usually matter, but there’s an extra gratification when we get feedback such as this letter:

Thanks to Soup for the splendid birthday compliment to Graeme Garden (Cryptic crossword, 18 February). It brought back joyous memories of The Goodies, and reminded me of how many years I’ve been hooting with laughter at I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Many happy returns, Graeme – and all power to your setting, Soup.
Julie Mottershead
Deal, Kent

4d Tense aquatic bird crushed by snake somewhere in South Africa (8)
[ wordplay: T (‘tense’) + SWAN (‘aquatic bird’), both inside BOA (‘snake’)
[ definition: somewhere in South Africa ]

Whether you want buildable or barely there, our beauty writer put 19 formulas through their paces – plus, makeup artists on how to apply it

• The best concealers for camouflaging blemishes and dark circles

As a makeup-loving teenager, I spent countless hours of my precious youth practising how to apply makeup, and spent more money than I dare to count buying products.

My cosmetics drawers quickly filled with fun mascaras, bronzers and eyeshadow palettes, but my choice of foundation was ruining the look of anything I applied on top. Whether it was oxidising and turning my skin orange, or mismatched formulation types causing the whole look to separate on the skin, getting a lasting natural finish seemed impossible. Had I spent a little more time picking out the best foundation for my skin type, I wouldn’t be haunted by so many embarrassing photos from my adolescence.

Best foundation overall:
Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Foundation

Best budget foundation:
L’Oréal True Match foundation

Our writer picks her favourite, tried-and-tested products for better sleep – from a bargain eye mask to a sustainable duvet

• The best mattresses – tested
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Just as spring emerges from its long, soggy lie-in, we’re going back to bed.

It may not seem the most obvious time of year for World Sleep Day (which was 13 March), but light evenings, early sunrises and the last cries of the fox mating season mean some of us need all the sleep help we can get.

Which supermarket Spanish omelette seems as if it’s served plump from the pan, and which is a soggy flop?

• The best supermarket free-range eggs

My second ever chef job was at Glastonbury in 1997, which is now famous as the “Year of the Mud”. We sliced hundreds of kilos of potatoes, peeled onions until we cried, and cracked and whisked untold dozens of eggs. Back then, you couldn’t buy tortilla in a shop, only from a tapas restaurant, but these days there’s an incredible selection in many supermarkets. I normally eat shop-bought tortilla straight from the packet, but during this taste test, I discovered just how nice it is when reheated in a pan. I tried all these tortillas hot and cold, and even the lower-scoring ones were quite enjoyable when eaten warm.

I judged them on taste and texture, which varied from a dense, firmly set egg to the soft and squidgy centre I love. All were relatively minimally processed, but all lacked transparency regarding the origin of their ingredients – though, thankfully, many were made with free-range eggs, which scored them an extra star. Some were made in the UK and others in Spain, but that didn’t always equate to a better product. While supermarket tortilla can’t quite replicate the fresh-from-the-pan experience, the best come surprisingly close.

The sport is booming, but which racket will boost your game? Our expert enlisted the help of a padel coach to round up the aces

• The best fitness tech and gadgets

There are ludicrously fast-growing sports – and then there’s padel. According to the Lawn Tennis Association, only 15,000 British players picked up a padel racket in 2019 … but by the end of 2024, that figure was more than 400,000. Of those, about 399,000 are probably mispronouncing it: think pah-dell rather than paddle. But get used to strange looks if you insist on saying it like that.

People love padel because it’s so easy to play. If you can hit a ball with a racket, you can play – and there’s something joyous about whacking any ball over any net. You don’t need to be incredibly fit either: while better players will be constantly on the move, casual players can get away with something akin to walking pace.

Best padel racket overall:
Babolat Counter Origin

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

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

Prep 20 min
Cook 2 hr
Serves 6

The trouble with open kitchens is that the chaos is fully visible to everyone

DakaDaka, a rowdy paean to Georgian cuisine, has arrived on Heddon Street in the West End of London. Heddon Street has always been synonymous with rowdiness, regardless of the fact that the mature, semi-elegant likes of Sabor, Piccolino and Heddon Street Kitchen are quite the opposite. But anyone who ever found themselves staggering out of Strawberry Moons in the 1990s having lost a shoe and with a love bite or from the basement club at Momo will know that this little nook tucked away behind Regent Street is where a good time is meant to be had.

And now there’s DakaDaka, which certainly does not market itself as a nightclub, because, well, virtually nowhere does any more. What DakaDaka does do, though, is play Georgian dance music very loudly and with endless enthusiasm right through your badrijani (grilled aubergines), imeruli (cheese-filled flatbread) and kababi (lamb skewers). Helpfully, the brick walls have been painted pitch-black to give these dark, candle-lit, metal-clad premises a real sense that you’ve somehow stumbled into a 2am lock-in on a back street in Tbilisi, complete with pottery, folklore and blackboards on the walls, though this place also happens to serve grape salads and nakhvatsa (corn crisps). Some potential customers will no doubt read that and think: “Yippee! I love a restaurant where talking to my friends is no longer part of the arduous invisible labour of leaving the house.” Well, those people will adore DakaDaka, and should take up one of the tables in the heart of the melee. Otherwise, there’s also a sit-up counter behind which the open kitchen is in full swing, and where you can sit shoulder to shoulder with a total stranger. If you do, however, please dress in removable layers, because you will be directly next to the open fire used for “live fire cooking”, that hospitality phrase du jour that has caused me so much merriment in recent years because it proves that if you put enough male chefs in one room for long enough, they will literally believe they invented fire.

A margarita, but made with smoky mezcal and the nutty backnotes of manzanilla

The impulse behind this was people’s enduring love of a margarita. We generally look to sherries or vermouths as key ingredients in our cocktails, but for this we wanted something that our guests would feel at ease with, while also being a little intrigued. Mezcal’s smoky notes work really well with the citrus notes in a classic margarita, so we opted for that as the base spirit, rather than tequila, while the addition of manzanilla lends the drink a lovely, complementary nuttiness.

Elinor Blair, bar manager, Bar Flor at Wildflowers, London SW1

Blonds really do have more fun – a special-occasion sweet treat that’s perfect for Mother’s Day

It’s often my own impatience that forces me to make no-bake cheesecakes over baked ones. They’re not at all as faffy, though it’s pretty hard to beat the lighter, silkier texture you get with a baked version plus the extra effort is worth it on a special occasion such as Mother’s Day. I’ve sweetened the filling for this one with caramelised white chocolate – it brings a beautiful, creamy, dulce de leche-type caramel flavour that even the biggest white chocolate haters should enjoy. If making your own caramelised white chocolate feels a step too far, however, just buy bars of blond chocolate instead. Top with gently poached rhubarb for a pop of colour and to cut through the richness.

Two Oxfordshire inhabitants disagreed over the role of the royals, but would they see eye to eye over benefits and immigration?

Matilda, 19, Oxfordshire

Occupation Starts a history degree in September

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Every night I wake up to find the dog staring at me, but tonight a terrifying noise disturbs us all …

In the middle of the night I feel the warm breath of a creature stirring my hair. It’s too dark to see anything, but I know from experience that the dog is standing by the bed, chin resting on the mattress next to my head, gently exhaling into my face.

The point is this: to wake me up without waking my wife.

We were stranded as flights were cancelled, but the travel company didn’t seem aware of our rights

We are holidaymakers stranded in Mauritius by the conflict in the Gulf. Our return flight, booked as part of a Virgin Holidays package, was routed via Dubai and was cancelled.

We were advised by Virgin’s local representative that we should arrange and pay for accommodation ourselves until flights resumed, and reclaim it on our travel insurance. Only after we challenged this position did Virgin agree to cover hotel costs.

Criminals exploiting Middle East crisis by targeting customers seeking help or refunds from affected carriers

Your flight has been delayed as a result of the Middle East crisis and you want to find out what’s happening, so you go online for an answer. You find a social media account run by the airline you are booked with and post a question, and get a reply offering help.

You’re asked to send a direct message with details, which seems reasonable. A conversation starts and you are told to give your phone number as you may be due compensation. This is where it all starts going wrong: instead of being given money, you have it taken. Although it looked official, the account that replied was a scam.

Woodall services near Sheffield is now one of the UK’s most expensive pit stops, with petrol at 172.9p a litre

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Opened in 1968, Woodall services on the M1 near Sheffield is Yorkshire’s oldest roadside service station. This weekend, it was also one of the country’s most expensive pit stops, with diesel priced at 185.9p a litre and petrol at 172.9p.

“Do you really want to know what I think? You probably couldn’t print it,” said biker Alan Harrison, who had stopped for a coffee break in the sunshine while heading from Leeds to Bournemouth.

Criminals using artificial intelligence tools to take over mobile, bank and online shopping accounts, says Cifas

Criminals are increasingly exploiting AI technology to take over people’s mobile, banking and online shopping accounts, the UK’s leading anti-fraud body has warned.

Last year, a record number of scams were reported to the national fraud database, fuelled by AI, which allows for large-scale deception on “industrialised” levels, according to Cifas, the fraud prevention organisation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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After living with chronic pain, Darcey Steinke wanted to know how it affected others. Her memoir, This Is the Door, explores both isolation and freedom

Chronic pain has a way of upending a life.

In her memoir This Is the Door, writer Darcey Steinke writes that “pain, like failure, breaks into our everyday lives and upsets who we thought we were and what we thought we could do”.

The first proper show since Valentino’s death is about the late designer, about beauty – and about Michele’s mother

Valentino Garavani wanted to make beautiful clothes for the women who could afford them. The perpetually tanned designer, whose vision of jet set glamour was matched only by his own yacht-and-pug lifestyle, died in January. So there was an obvious logic in taking the first proper catwalk show since his death off the fashion week schedule and back to Rome, where he lived, worked, and died. Milan and Paris may be the capitals of European style, but Rome looks better.

Garavani left his own brand almost 20 years ago. But his singular approach to beauty has not been without its obstacles for his most recent successor, Alessandro Michele, who took over the fashion house in 2024. “It’s a complicated DNA because beauty is always changing,” he said after the show, which took place in the 17th-century Palazzo Barberini. “This collection is about Valentino. It’s about beauty. But it’s [also] about the tension between me and the brand, a beauty I’m trying to translate.”

Online fashion commentator Lyas’s catwalk watch parties have gone from hastily assembled get-togethers to large-scale spectacles. But how easy is it to walk the line between outsider and insider?

It was the latest Paris fashion week, moments before the Tom Ford show was due to start, when fashion commentator Lyas slipped through the backstage entrance of the Théâtre du Châtelet and went upstairs to get mic’d up.

Having failed to get a ticket to the actual show, 27-year-old Lyas – whose real name is Elias Medini and who has almost 500,000 followers on Instagram – was preparing to livestream it on a big screen to 2,000 of his fellow rejects currently sitting in the auditorium. The night before he had shown Saint Laurent. In a few days he would do the same for Chanel. His aim, he says, is to democratise a famously closed-off industry, and open up the spectacle of fashion week to people who have no chance of ever going themselves.

Is the secret to a decent night’s kip a good sleep kit? Silky pyjamas, cosy socks and a dressing gown you won’t mind being seen in when putting the bins out will certainly help

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.

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

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

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

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

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

In addition to near-20% of the beachside suburb’s population claiming Irish ancestry, it also boasts an astounding array of Irish entities, from themed bars to two fully fledged rugby teams

“I remember having my mind blown seeing boys walking down the beach in Irish football jerseys,” says Luke McCaul, a Dublin-born hairdresser and drag queen who moved to the beachside Sydney suburb of Coogee to work 15 years ago.

“Like, ‘what the fuck are they doing?’ Gaelic football jerseys – in Australia!”

From the rugged north of Scotland to the glittering Aegean, our tipsters recommend islands for slowing down, lazing around and taking in nature
• Tell us about a spring activity or day out – the best tip wins a £200 holiday voucher

A short ferry ride from Vigo (daily and overnight visitor numbers are capped) took us to the tiny archipelago of the Cíes Islands, a protected cluster of islands where seabirds rule and tiny beaches remain unspoilt. There are no cars on the island and only a few small restaurants dotted about. There is one campsite, with little else but the waves of the Atlantic to lull you to sleep. I felt as if I had won the lottery when we visited and knew this would be an experience not easily matched.
Helen E

The answers to today’s problems

Earlier today I posed four puzzles from the Hyde Park Math Zine, a maths fanzine from Austin, Texas. Here they are again with solutions.

1. Ring it

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

It took Melissa Auf der Maur almost 20 years to tell anyone, even her husband, how her father had died. It was April 1998 and she was the bassist in Hole, the blistering alternative rock band founded by Courtney Love. They were on a brief break from recording what would be the band’s hit – and, for a time, final – album, Celebrity Skin, while Love, clean from heroin addiction, was pursuing a Hollywood film career.

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

Limb-severing machinery and loud noises awaited my frayed nerves – yet the workshop became my safe space

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I had my first panic attack on New Year’s Day 2022. In the months that followed I experienced more of these episodes and increasingly craved serenity. Woodworking emerged in my mind as a place I might get some reprieve from the new psychological maze I was stumbling through after a traumatic event changed how I experienced the world.

The call of the timber was undeniable. I landed on the Victorian Woodworkers Association in North Melbourne for its price, emphasis on craft and the pedigree of its tutors. Here I was able to take an open class that let me make whatever I wanted from day one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The war is deeply unpopular, and the spike in oil prices will mean long-term high prices across the board for Americans

Donald Trump is still high on the capture of Nicolás Maduro. The easy abduction of the Venezuelan president didn’t just grant Trump control of the nation’s oil and critical minerals resources. It allowed him to throttle the government of Cuba by denying it access to energy, raising the tantalizing prospect that he might bring down a communist regime that has annoyed Washington since 1959.

Trump is confident that his joint venture with Israel in Iran will do just as well. The barrage of Iranian missiles and drones aimed at Israel and Iran’s Arab neighbors has done nothing to change Trump’s mind that he can win, regardless of how he defines “winning”.

Perhaps you are limiting car journeys or reducing the amount of cooking you do. Tell us

The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted global shipping routes and caused a surge in global oil market prices.

The strait of Hormuz, one of the most important waterways in the world, through which about a fifth of international oil supplies usually travel, has been all but closed since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran.

One Battle After Another sweeps the Oscars but there were big wins for Michael B Jordan and Jessie Buckley – now we’d like to hear from you

One Battle After Another led the way at this year’s Oscars, scooping six awards, including best picture.

Hot on its heels was Sinners, which took home four statuettes, including a best actor win for Michael B Jordan.

We’d like to hear from people in the UK who have seen the cost of goods or services increase or experienced delays, cancellations or other disruptions

The conflict in the Middle East, disruption to global shipping routes and rising oil prices are beginning to have knock-on effects on supply chains and energy markets around the world.

Petrol prices have begun to rise, while turbulence in financial markets has pushed up mortgage rates. Higher transport and supply costs can also feed through into the price of goods and services.

Tell us about your favourite break in France, whether it was in the town or countryside – the best tip wins £200 towards a Coolstays break

France is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations but there are still plenty of hidden corners where you can go to escape the crowds. We’d love to hear about your favourite under-the-radar places in France, whether it’s an underrated city break destination, a little-known museum, gallery or cultural attraction, a beautiful village, national park or stretch of coastline.

The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet wins a £200 voucher to stay at a Coolstays property – the company has more than 3,000 worldwide. The best tips will appear in the Guardian Travel section and website.

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