Murder-for-hire scheme uncovered in investigation of slain teacher

Jocelyn Peters, a beloved third grade teacher in St. Louis, Missouri, was shot to death in her sleep. The crime scene held an unusual clue – something one detective says he had never seen before.

Middle East crisis live: Trump ‘surprised’ Iran has targeted Gulf countries and claims US ‘decimated’ Kharg Island

US president said he did not want to make a deal with Iran yet, while claiming that he might hit Kharg Island again ‘just for fun’

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

Iraq’s football team will travel to Mexico for a 2026 World Cup playoff match despite calls for it to be postponed due to the Middle East war, the country’s football association has announced.

“The national team will depart at the end of the week to Mexico via a private plane,” said Iraq football association president Adnan Dirjal in a statement, adding they had contacted Fifa to help facilitate the trip during the conflict in the region that has hampered flights.

‘No one saw this coming’: will the surprise Telegraph winner change the paper’s direction?

Daily Mail owner could take long-term hit after being gazumped at the 11th hour by Germany’s Axel Springer

The day after Lord Rothermere was gazumped in his pursuit of the Telegraph by Axel Springer’s £575m knockout offer, the Daily Mail owner was pictured beaming at Rupert Murdoch’s 95th birthday party in New York.

As guests at the star-studded black tie celebration at The Grill in Manhattan listened to Hollywood actor Hugh Jackman sing numbers such as Fly Me to the Moon, the 58-year-old media mogul may have been wondering how his almost three-decade dream to unite the titles within one right-leaning stable had fallen at the final hurdle.

The one thing everyone gets wrong about feminism

People love to declare the death of the women’s movement, pointing to the ‘failure’ of #MeToo or the Epstein files, but don’t give up the fight just yet, writes Rebecca Solnit

Feminism is far from dead, but people love to write its obituary. I’ve lived through dozens of them over the decades, and there’s been a fresh flurry over the past few years. These death announcements are mostly based on two dubious assumptions. One is that we’re at the end of the story, the point at which a verdict can be rendered and a moral extracted. In this version, 60 years on from the great 1960s surge of feminism, the process should be over, and if feminism has not won, surely it has lost. In reality, it’s naively defeatist to assume millennia of patriarchy entrenched in law, culture, social arrangements and economics could be or should have been fully disassembled in one lifetime.

The other assumption is that one event can be a weathervane, a measuring stick, for the failure of feminism. Three popular recent candidates are the overturning of Roe v Wade in June 2022, #MeToo, and the Epstein files. Let’s first remember that the US is not the whole world. There have, for example, been countless obituary writers proclaiming that #MeToo is over or failed, and I’m not sure what that is based on – the assumption that all sexual abuse should have ended and, if not, feminism of the #MeToo subcategory did not succeed? Is any other human rights movement measured by such criteria? Did anyone think the civil rights movement should be judged by whether it terminated all racism for ever? The perfect is the enemy of the good, and it’s often both an impossible standard and a cudgel used to bash in what good has been achieved.

My life collapsed when my husband had an affair. How can I recover? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

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.

Three more Iranian women’s football squad members return home after being granted asylum in Australia

Three squad members to remain in Australia on specially granted protection visas

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

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Three more members of the Iranian women’s football squad have left Australia, leaving behind teammates who sought asylum after playing in the Women’s Asian Cup.

The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, said on Sunday morning the trio had decided to join the rest of the team in Iran, after being issued special protection visas to stay in Australia.

Trapezes and artists: world’s oldest circus restored to original glory in Paris

Alexandre Dumas was wowed by it and Burt Lancaster starred there. Now the Cirque d’Hiver has a new spectacle

For more than 170 years the Cirque d’Hiver, the world’s oldest circus, has been the scene of many a breathtaking act.

In 1859, gymnast Jules Léotard – whose name would become synonymous with the one-piece – captivated audiences by launching himself from one swinging trapeze to another without a safety net for the first time in public.

My mother’s best advice: talk to your children like old friends

She treated me and my sister as her friends, and said it meant she rarely felt lonely. I see now that she wasn’t telling me what to do with my life – but expressing how much she loved us

It was summer, and I was sitting on the washing machine in the kitchen, listening to my mother tell me the best thing about having children. It wasn’t intended as advice per se – as she saw it, it was simply an outcome of motherhood – but I took it as such. Recently single and aged 30, becoming a mum couldn’t have been further from my mind, but I remember clearly what she said.

Having children, she told me, meant she’d always had a little friend. Or, in the case of me and my sister, two friends. As a result, she rarely felt lonely. From a young age, she would take us to galleries, to the supermarket, sometimes to work. Normal parenting stuff. Except she was divorced and largely on her own, so it would just be us, and she would talk to us like we were old friends. Big stuff or small, she didn’t discriminate. She talked, we listened – given we were preschool, I imagine us as Tom Hanks’ inanimate volleyball Wilson in Cast Away – but we remained incredibly close until she died in August 2020.

Planned Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot cancelled, says Sarah Michelle Gellar

Streaming platform Hulu decides ‘not to move forward’ with reboot of hit 90s series, according to actress

Buffy The Vampire Slayer will not return, its star Sarah Michelle Gellar has announced, saying a reboot of the 90s supernatural fantasy series had been cancelled.

Hulu, the Disney-owned streaming platform, has decided not to pick up the planned sequel, according to the actor.

Carlos Alcaraz stays positive after winning streak ended by Daniil Medvedev at Indian Wells

• Spanish world No 1 falls to first defeat of tennis season

• Medvedev wins 6-3, 7-6(3) to set up final against Jannik Sinner

Carlos Alcaraz said he was finding it tough to constantly have a target on his back and was surprised by the level of performance from Daniil Medvedev after the Russian handed him his first defeat of the season at Indian Wells.

Medvedev’s 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over the world No 1 in the semi-finals ended the Spaniard’s 16-match winning run to start the season. World No 11 Medvedev will play Jannik Sinner in the final on Sunday.

Trump news at a glance: president says Iran’s Kharg Island ‘demolished’ and threatens more strikes ‘just for fun’

Trump also questions whether Iran’s new supreme leader ‘is even alive’ while deflating hopes of a deal with Tehran to end conflict – key US politics stories from 14 March 2026 at a glance

Donald Trump says US strikes have “totally demolished” much of Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub and threatened that “we may hit it a few more times just for fun”.

In comments to NBC News, the president also questioned, without attribution, whether Iran’s new supreme leader “is even alive”, while deflating hopes of a deal with Tehran to end the conflict.

What we know about U.S. service members killed in Iran war

Since the start of the Iran war, 13 American service members have been killed.

U.S. identifies 6 service members killed in refueling aircraft crash in Iraq

Six U.S. service members who were killed in a military refueling aircraft crash over Iraq last week have been identified as members of the Ohio Air National Guard and Florida-based crew members.

Trump thanks TSA agents working with no pay amid government shutdown

TSA officers faced their first full missed paycheck Friday.

2 former federal workers turned their firings into a movement to help others

Within days of their firings, two former federal workers launched a support group for fellow colleagues in the same situation. What started out as 20 people has grown to almost 5,000 members nationwide.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Strait of Hormuz: 'Don't need to worry about it'

The Strait of Hormuz, the world's most critical chokepoint for oil shipments, has been effectively closed since the U.S. and Israel began the war on Iran.

Ukraine war briefing: six people killed as Russia unleashes missile and drone attacks, officials say

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia targeted energy infrastructure near Kyiv but residential buildings and schools also hit. What we know on day 1,481

Russia hammered Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday, killing six people and inflicting damage across several regions of the country, Ukrainian officials said. Five of those killed were in the Kyiv region outside the capital, where Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces targeted energy infrastructure but also damaged residential buildings, schools and businesses. Fifteen people were injured.

The Ukrainian president said the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions were also targeted in an attack that included about 430 drones and 68 missiles, most of which were downed by air defences. “The main target for the Russians was the energy infrastructure of the Kyiv region, but unfortunately, there were also direct hits on and damage to ordinary residential buildings, schools, and civilian businesses,” Zelenskyy said.

A Russian strike later in the afternoon on a residential area in the Zaporizhzhia suburbs killed one and wounded 18, including two children, the local administration said. Reuters footage showed emergency crews at work amid piles of rubble and twisted metal. Windows and frames on balconies were smashed.

Russia’s winter attacks on Ukraine have left swathes of major cities without power or heating, part of a campaign to weaken resolve as Moscow’s troops press a battlefield offensive and demand Kyiv cede more territory in the east. Ukraine’s energy ministry said on Saturday that people in six regions were without electricity after the overnight strikes and Russian shelling of frontline areas.

Saturday’s attack also prompted Nato member Poland to scramble jets to protect its airspace, but no violations were observed, Warsaw’s military said. In Moldova, on Ukraine’s western border, the foreign ministry denounced what it said was an intrusion by a Russian drone into its airspace in a border district, saying Moscow’s actions undermined regional security and posed a danger to its citizens.

Zelenskyy repeated his call for Kyiv’s partners to boost production of air defence weapons, stocks of which have been diminishing as the US and its allies in the Gulf, fending off Iranian strikes. The UK’s prime minister Keir Starmer may send thousands of interceptor drones to the Middle East, the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Military officials are examining whether the “Octopus” interceptor anti-drone drone system, which is manufactured in the UK for Ukraine to use against Russia, can also be used to bolster British defences against Iran’s Shahed drones, the report said.

Russian air defence units downed 65 Ukrainian drones headed for Moscow throughout the day on Saturday, the city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Sobyanin, writing on Telegram, said the drones were intercepted over an 11-hour period beginning around noon. Crews were examining the fragments at the sites where they fell. The governor of the Bryansk region on the Ukrainian border, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram that units in his region had downed 128 drones. He gave no time frame.

Trump says he thinks Russian leader Putin is helping Iran in war

Russian leaders told President Trump they aren't sharing intelligence with Iran as it fights the U.S. and Israel, special envoy Steve Witkoff said this week.

Greer says Trump tariffs refunds should go to companies' workers as bonuses or raises

The United States government could end up paying $165 billion of more in refunds for Trump's IEEPA tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled were illegal.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr says broadcast licenses are not a "property right"

In an exclusive interview with CBS News Saturday, Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr doubled down on his warning that broadcast licenses could be revoked amid President Trump's criticisms of media coverage of the war in Iran.

How two fired federal workers are helping others like them

Two former federal workers are turning their firings into a movement to help others. Nikole Killion has their story.

Fliers running into long lines, travel headaches amid partial government shutdown

Fliers in the U.S. experienced long lines at security as TSA agents worked without pay. Tim McNicholas has more on the major problems looming this spring break.

The Paparazzi: Once making big money, now a casualty of social media

The Academy Awards are on Sunday night and Hollywood's biggest stars will be under the watchful eye of the paparazzi. Barry Petersen reports that those who once made a lot of money for their shots are no longer.

War in Iran squeezing U.S. oil supply, driving up gas prices

The economic risks of the war in Iran are getting real for Americans at home. Stock markets ended the week down again as the conflict dragged on. This as U.S. crude oil costs are pumped up. Andres Gutierrez has more on the energy shock.

Evacuations ordered in Doha, Qatar as the war in Iran spreads regionally

Iran urged Middle East countries to expel the U.S. military on Saturday. Nations in the Persian Gulf are reporting new attacks by Iranian drones and missiles, but the pace has slowed. Imtiaz Tyab has more from Doha, Qatar.

3/14: CBS Weekend News

U.S. bombs Iran's biggest oil hub; evacuations ordered in parts of Doha.

Trump says US may strike Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub ‘just for fun’

In comments to NBC News, US president also deflates hope of deal with Tehran, saying ‘terms aren’t good enough’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States may carry out more strikes on Iran’s vital Kharg Island oil export hub “just for fun”, rejecting the prospect of a swift peace deal with Tehran.

“The terms aren’t good enough yet,” the US president told NBC News. The Iranian regime wants to make an agreement, he claimed.

Scheffler searches for form with Masters looming as Åberg leads the way at Players

• World No 1 sitting outside the top 20 with one round to go

• Åberg takes three-shot lead into final 18 holes at Sawgrass

There is a robotic element to Scottie Scheffler during periods of success but observing the world No 1 in times of adversity is far more intriguing. There is more – much more – to the American than meets the eye.

This is a golfer who was once reduced to tears after a Ryder Cup trouncing. While all charges were eventually dropped, the mere fact Scheffler found himself in a prison jumpsuit before a round at the 2024 US PGA was highly unusual. Last summer, he was filmed in long and histrionic discussion with his coach amid struggles at the US Open.

I’m a middle-aged mother who hoped boxing would fix anxiety. Instead it knocked me out | Anna Spargo-Ryan

Friends said ‘most people will never get in the ring’ as if it was comforting instead of a reminder I’m extremely stupid

I’ve spent most of my life being devoured by heart-exploding anxiety. “Doing scary things” has meant stuff like being out after dark and calling someone on the phone. It has never, for one minute, meant fist fighting in front of a crowd of people.

But a while ago I decided to try countering the anxiety by doing new stuff. With that in mind, I went to a boxing class. At worst, I figured, I could write a column about being a middle-aged mother in a young man’s world.

Anna Spargo-Ryan is the author of A Kind of Magic, The Gulf and The Paper House, and a winner of the Horne prize

Why the Chicago Bears could be moving to Indiana

While Illinois is trying to keep the team in Chicago's suburbs, Indiana lawmakers are offering a plan to finance a new stadium

Trump fundraising pitch features U.S. soldiers killed in Iran war

The email solicitation to benefit Trump’s PAC also offers donors “private national security briefings.”

European football: Díaz rescues Bayern and then sees red against Leverkusen

• Harry Kane has goal disallowed on return

• Guler scores from own half in Real Madrid victory

Bayern Munich came from behind and finished the match with nine players in a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, allowing Borussia Dortmund to close to within nine points of the Bundesliga leaders. Luis Díaz, who scored the equaliser after Aleix García’s opener, was sent off in the 84th minute for a second yellow card. Nicolas Jackson had received a red card in the 42nd minute.

Leverkusen took the lead in the sixth minute after Montrell Culbreath stole the ball off Díaz and fed it to Patrik Schick, who set up García on the edge of the box. The midfielder slotted home with a deflected shot. The hosts defended well to contain Bayern, and frustration showed when Jackson was sent off before half-time for a late challenge on Martin Terrier.

FCC chair slams broadcasters after Trump disputes reports on Iran-damaged U.S. tankers

FCC Chair Brendan Carr blasted broadcasters shortly after President Donald Trump called reports that Iran struck five U.S. tanker planes "fake news." 

France win Six Nations with last kick as Thomas Ramos sinks England in thriller

• France 48-46 England

• Late penalty denies Ireland the championship

This has been a stunningly unpredictable Six Nations and no one saw this remarkable final reel coming. While France may have clinched the trophy for the second successive year England came within seconds of spoiling their pulsating last night party in a see-sawing game for the ages. In the end the hosts needed a last-gasp penalty from Thomas Ramos to secure the trophy, dashing rising Irish hopes of a sensational title heist.

It will go down among the most extraordinary chapters in the 120-year history of this fixture, ultimately securing back-to-back titles for France for the first time since 2007. They were particularly indebted to the brilliant Louis Bielle-Biarrey who surpassed himself by scoring four tries, condemning England to four losses in the same championship season for the first time in 50 years.

Pentagon tightens controls over Stars and Stripes after calling it "woke"

The new rules for the independent military newspaper are the Defense Department's latest effort to put extraordinary restrictions on journalists covering the agency.

F1 cancels Bahrain and Saudi Arabia GPs because of Middle East war

• Bahrain circuit only 20 miles from targeted US base

• Races unlikely to be replaced because of logistics

Formula One has cancelled the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia grands prix because of the war in the Middle East.

The races were due to take place on 12 April in Bahrain and 19 April in Saudi Arabia but the sport was approaching the point at which a decision on cancellation needed to be made to prevent more freight being sent to Bahrain.

Mavropanos earns vital draw for West Ham to hurt Manchester City title hopes

Right at the death, Marc Guéhi skied over with the West Ham goal at his mercy. It was the chance. The Manchester City players collapsed, fearing any hope of reeling Arsenal in had disappeared into thin air, and there were probably a fair few Tottenham and Nottingham Forest fans cursing Guéhi’s lack of composure in front of goal.

This was a big night at both ends of the Premier League table. West Ham were dogged, defiant and unflinching in their refusal to give up on the point that lifted them out of the bottom three for the first time since November. They will believe, even though they will be back in the relegation zone if Forest pick up at least a point at home to Fulham on Sunday. Nuno Espírito Santo has orchestrated quite the revival. This draw made it two defeats in nine league games for West Ham and, while they still have the toughest run-in out of anyone scrapping for survival, they will take immense encouragement from how they neutralised City’s attack with an exhibition of classic Nunoball.

White House proposes new underground visitor screening facility

The Trump administration has proposed the construction of an underground facility to screen visitors to the White House.

Fertitta in weekend deal talks to acquire Caesars, while billionaire Carl Icahn waits in the wings

The deal, if it gets done, would not be finalized until early April and is not expected to close until 2027.

FCC chair threatens to throttle news broadcasts over ‘hoaxes’ about Iran war

Brendan Carr posts that he may cancel spectrum permits of ‘mainstream news’ outlets for ‘misleading’ coverage

The Trump administration’s communications licensing tsar fired a warning shot over the US broadcasting industry Saturday, threatening to cancel the spectrum permits of broadcasters pushing what he termed “hoaxes and news distortions”.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr posted on social media that broadcasters running “fake news – have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up. The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

Energy secretary directs Texas oil company to restore operations off California

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright invoked the Defense Production Act to restore the Sable Offshore Corp.'s Santa Ynez unit and pipeline off Santa Barbara's coastline.

Jake Adicoff, first out gay US man to win Winter Paralympic gold, adds to haul

• Adicoff adds relay title after two previous Milan golds

• Oksana Masters wins US record 23rd Paralympic medal

• US quartet dominates Para cross-country mixed relay

There was no bow this time at the Milan Cortina Games for Jake Adicoff, the first out gay American male Winter Paralympic champion.

Instead, he was tackled to the ground by teammate Oksana Masters after they helped the United States win the Para cross-country mixed relay on Saturday.

FCC chair threatens broadcast licenses as Trump criticizes Iran war coverage

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr did not name specific networks, but his post included a reference to a Saturday morning Truth Social post from the president.

Max Dowman breaks record as Arsenal boost title push with late win against Everton

It was the moment to blow the roof off the Emirates Stadium, the exclamation mark on a victory that felt pivotal to the destination of the Premier League title. Everton had been excellent, a colossal test for Arsenal and their credentials. Mikel Arteta and his players passed it. But it was more than that. It was the way they pulled through.

The goal to tilt it their way, the decisive one with time almost up, was tapped in by the substitute, Viktor Gyökeres. It came when Jordan Pickford touched the ball on to Piero Hincapié and, with luck on Arsenal’s side, it broke perfectly for Gyökeres in front of an empty net.

Expansive Europeans befuddle Premier League elite as set-piece shtick backfires | Jonathan Wilson

Humbled English clubs must realise that what works against the very good turns out to be inadequate against the best

If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. If the only tool you have is a set play, the solution to everything starts to look like a pre-programmed move based on blocking runs. And perhaps that’s especially true if you’re worn out, knackered by the attrition of a persistent schedule of two games a week against teams who are frustratingly well organised and physically imposing. Think? Dribble? Make a surprising run? Who has the bandwidth for that? Just sling it to the back post and get in the way of the keeper.

Arne Slot had spoken in the buildup to Liverpool’s defeat by Galatasaray on Tuesday of how difficult it is to create chances in modern football, and how set pieces are a way to circumvent the sophisticated defensive setups of most Premier League teams. He is certainly not alone in taking that approach in the Premier League. But the Champions League is not like the Premier League. The crowding of the six-yard box, the full bearhug grappling, the meat wall to block the goalkeeper … it turns out all of those are penalised by European referees, and that is a problem for Premier League teams.

Iran threatens to escalate war after Trump says ‘many countries’ will send warships to strait of Hormuz

US president calls on China, France, Japan and the UK to send vessels after US strikes Kharg Island oil facilities

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Iran threatened on Saturday to further escalate the war raging in the Middle East by targeting any facility in the region with US ties, after Donald Trump predicted “many countries” would send warships to support a US bid to reopen by force the strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway closed to virtually all maritime traffic by Tehran since the beginning of the war.

Iran has responded to the joint US-Israeli offensive, which is entering its third week, with daily attacks on oil and other infrastructure around the Gulf region, as well as against Israel.

This week on "Sunday Morning" (March 15)

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics 2026: day eight – in pictures

We take a look at the best images from the Games, including skiing, curling and ice hockey

Quick on the draw: the worldwide appeal of sketching 100 people in a week

Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes live on opposite sides of the globe but connected through a sketching challenge. Now it’s a phenomenon

If you’re lucky, you may spot Liz Steel tucked into the corner of a sun-dappled Sydney cafe, water-soluble pencils and markers in hand. Half a world away, Marc Taro Holmes is led by his sketchbook on to the thawing streets of Montreal, “like a bear coming out of hibernation”.

The duo are co-founders of #OneWeek100People challenge, an informal global initiative that asks artists to sketch 100 people in seven days. The challenge, now in its 10th year, took place this week but Steel and Holmes stress it is entirely for enjoyment, and anyone can take it up and post with the hashtag at any time.

‘All you hear is bloody Irish accents’: the unstoppable growth of Sydney’s ‘County’ Coogee

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!”

Ideson claims Paralympics curling gold for Canada with last shot against China

• Canada edge to 4-3 victory against China in thriller

• Secures country’s fourth win in blue riband event

Canada have returned to the summit of wheelchair curling, edging out the reigning champions, China, 4-3 to earn their fourth gold medal in this blue riband event at the Winter Paralympics. A tense encounter was decided by the very last shot of the match as skipper Mark Ideson struck a perfectly judged hit and roll to take a solitary, definitive point in the eighth end.

Both teams had entered the final in impressive form. The only defeat for China had come at the hands of the Canadians in the round robin stage, with the North Americans themselves unbeaten. In front of a full house in the Cortina curling arena, and with loud partisan support for both sides, it was a match of nip and tuck.

Sinema admits romance with security guard as she fights ex-wife's lawsuit

The attorney for former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema says she shouldn't be subject to a lawsuit by the ex-wife of her former lover.

New York lawyer linked to Trump pardon charged with attempted extortion

Joshua Nass, of alleged $600,000 extortion plot, played role in pardon of man convicted of failing to pay $40m in taxes

A New York lobbyist and attorney connected to a presidential pardon issued by Donald Trump in November has been charged with attempting to extort a former client and the client’s son over an alleged $500,000 debt.

Joshua Nass, 34, was arrested on Friday after being charged in federal court in Brooklyn with attempted Hobbs Act extortion. US justice department prosecutors contend that Nass threatened a client for payment that he claimed he was owed for his services.

This CEO warns that Democratic voters are most at risk from automation | Arwa Mahdawi

Palantir’s CEO says the platforms will have a vast effect on the electoral landscape … especially women. Is it a warning or a sales pitch?

Don’t you just love AI? It has inundated the internet with slop, destabilized the concept of truth, and made it much easier to bomb people. And that’s just the beginning. As we look towards the future of our brave new world, AI might also disrupt all those pesky highly-educated female voters who keep casting a ballot for Democrats.

To be clear: that assessment isn’t coming from me, a highly exhausted female who wishes the Democrats would work a little harder for people’s votes. Rather, it’s coming from one of the key architects of our glorious AI-driven economy: Alex Karp, the co-founder and CEO of tech firm Palantir.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Duke and Duchess of Sussex hit back at ‘deranged’ author’s claims in new book

Royal couple criticise Tom Bower’s ‘fixation’ on them and describe released extracts as ‘conspiracy and melodrama’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have launched a scathing attack on a “deranged” author whose new book claims Queen Camilla once told a friend: “Meghan’s brainwashed ‌Harry.”

The royal couple hit out at Tom Bower, the author of Betrayal: Power, Deceit and the Fight for the Future of the Royal Family, criticising his “fixation” on the pair.

Trump administration to be paid $10bn for brokering TikTok deal

Exceptionally rare ‘fee’ to be paid by investors who took control of US operations from Chinese parent company

Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly poised to be paid $10bn by investors as part of a deal to create a US-controlled version of TikTok.

The $10bn, considered by the US government as a sort of transaction fee, will be paid by the administration-friendly investors who took control of TikTok’s US operations from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, according to reporting that first appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Jürgen Habermas, German philosopher and sociologist, dies aged 96

Habermas’s political consensus-building theory argued formation of public opinion vital for democracies to survive

The influential German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas has died at the age of 96, his publisher has said.

Habermas, a towering figure in the intellectual history of postwar Germany, is best known for his theory of political consensus-building. Widely considered one of most influential philosophers of the 20th century, he also helped to shape the discourse around European integration and the formation of the EU.

Five arrested in Cuba after protest at local Communist party office

Rare action began peacefully but ‘degenerated into vandalism’ according to state-run newspaper

Five people have been arrested in Cuba for acts of “vandalism” after a small group of protesters broke into a provincial office of the Cuban Communist party and set fire to computers and furniture.

The incident, which also affected a pharmacy and another shop, took place in the town of Moron, a little more than 300 miles (500km) east of Havana.

Remains of sailor identified more than 8 decades after Pearl Harbor attack

U.S. Navy Seaman 1st Class Clyde C. McMeans, 26, was one of the 103 USS California crewmen killed during attacks on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Russian strike on Kyiv region kills 4 and wounds 15, with peace talks stalled

The strikes comes after the United States paused ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine due to the war with Iran.

Israeli strike kills 12 healthcare workers in southern Lebanon

The facility was attacked on Friday night, bringing the toll of medical staff to 31 killed in past 12 days

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Israel killed 12 medical workers in a strike on a medical centre in south Lebanon on Friday night, bringing the toll of healthcare staff killed in the country by Israel to 31 over the past 12 days.

A primary healthcare facility in the town of Burj Qalaouiyah was hit by an Israeli strike late on Friday, setting it ablaze and causing the structure to collapse on top of the staff inside. The strike killed doctors, paramedics and nurses on duty, according to the Lebanese ministry of health, which said it “violated all international humanitarian laws” in a statement.

‘We were at a loss’: the couples trying to get pregnant by removing plastics from their lives

New Netflix documentary The Plastic Detox follows an epidemiologist’s radical new plan to boost fertility in three months. We meet the couples whose lives were turned upside down – and in some cases, hugely for the better

Two years into an emotionally draining mission to get pregnant, with no sign of a positive result, Idaho couple Darby and Jesse Nubbe were feeling desperate. “We were $16,000 (£12,000) out of pocket, with weekly blood work, invasive ultrasounds, sperm quality testing, genetic testing, eating well, exercising, daily cold plunging, expensive vitamins, excessive pregnancy testing and more tears than I would like to remember,” Darby tells me. “We were at a loss, with an official diagnosis of ‘unexplained infertility’.”

It hadn’t crossed the couple’s minds that the problem might be the everyday products inside their home, from water bottles to clothes. Then Dr Shanna Swan entered their lives.

Judge blocks Trump administration's subpoenas against Fed Chair Powell

A federal judge blocked two grand jury subpoenas against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday. Chief Judge James Boasberg wrote that "the Government has offered no evidence whatsoever that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the President."

Latest details on Michigan synagogue attack suspect

More details are emerging about the suspect in the attack on Temple Israel in Michigan on Thursday. Sources say Lebanese-born U.S. citizen Ayman Mohamad Ghazali lost family members in a recent strike on Lebanon.

Security detail requested for U.S. official who asked for Lisa Cook, Adam Schiff probes

A security detail has been requested from the federal health department's inspector general for top federal housing official Bill Pulte.

U.S. strikes key Iranian oil hub

President Trump said Friday night on social media that the U.S. struck a key Iranian oil hub on Kharg Island as tensions over the global oil supply ramp up amid Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Justice department drops charges against veteran who burned US flag

Jan ‘Jay’ Carey torched the Stars and Stripes to protest against Trump’s executive order banning flag burning

The prosecution of a man who burned the American flag near the White House in protest of an executive order against flag burning has been dropped by the US Department of Justice.

On Friday, the justice department moved to dismiss charges against Jan “Jay” Carey, 55, a military combat veteran who set the flag on fire in Lafayette Square in Washington DC in August, the day that Donald Trump signed a presidential order to crack down on flag burning.

Home Office U-turn will let some dual nationals use EU passport to enter UK

EU citizens with post-Brexit settlement status in UK will not have to present British passport to airlines

British dual nationals who are EU citizens with post-Brexit settlement status in the UK will not have to use a British passport to return to the UK, the Home Office has said in a significant U-turn on its controversial dual national border rules.

The change, which critics say was “hidden away” on a government webpage, comes weeks after controversy erupted over the new rules that came into effect on 25 February. They require British dual nationals to present a British passport or certificate of entitlement, costing £589, before they board a plane to the UK.

‘You’ve got to be able to laugh at yourself’: Jamie Oliver stars in video for CMAT’s The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station

The TV chef wondered what he’d done to prompt CMAT’s indie epic about losing the plot at the sight of his face – but once he got her ‘tragicomedy of misdirected anger’, he was ‘100% in’ to drum in the video

It is 27 years since Jamie Oliver first appeared on TV as The Naked Chef, bish-bash-boshing his way to cultural ubiquity thanks in part to his rock’n’roll credentials: his band Scarlet Division provided the show’s theme tune, and his love of Toploader made their cover of Dancing in the Moonlight a monumental hit. Since then, music has, for better or worse, dwindled in Oliver’s now-global brand – an unwieldy commercial force that inadvertently inspired one of 2025’s best songs.

Last year, Irish pop star CMAT put out her third album, Euro-Country, whose highlight was an ecstatic indie epic called The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, released just before her standout set at Glastonbury. The lyrics recall the singer being at one of the Shell garages that sell Oliver’s line of salads and sandwiches, and losing the plot at the sight of the chef’s face. “I needed deli, but God, I hate him,” sings CMAT (AKA Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson), though it is less a weird diss track, and more about her relationship with irrational hatred in a confusing world: critic Dorian Lynskey praised it as a “tragicomedy of misdirected anger”.

‘I won’t hide it, I’m scared’: drone strike alerts Cyprus to its inadequate bomb shelters

Almost 20% of the shelters are unsuitable or don’t exist at all, with officials admitting Iran war ‘has exposed just how ill-prepared we are’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

At 12.33pm on 2 March, Valentinos Pangalos was ordered to activate sirens at Paphos international airport in Cyprus. An emergency had been declared. A suspicious object – thought to be a drone packed with explosives – had been detected heading towards the facility. Barely 12 hours earlier, an Iranian-made, Shahed-type drone had smashed into a hangar at RAF Akrotiri, raising the alarm further. The airport needed to be evacuated immediately.

“In 24 years of doing this job I’d never been asked to do anything like it,” said Pangalos, among the longest-serving officers at the island’s civil defence force. “To receive such an order, so abruptly, was intense.”

Fatal shooting near Sawgrass delays opening of gates at Players Championship

• Police find suspect after incident near course

• Third round began on time despite delays

Police have captured a man who they say killed two people on Friday night about a mile from TPC Sawgrass. The incident led the Players Championship to delay opening the gates to the public for the third round by a couple of hours.

The St Johns County sheriff, Rob Hardwick, said the suspect, whom he identified as Christian Barrios, shot two people multiple times about 10:30pm on Friday in the parking lot of Walgreens in a domestic violence situation. The store is located about a mile away from the course.

Mandelson still a human being who’s entitled to fair trial, says Cherie Blair

Wife of former PM also says she is mentioned in Epstein files and coverage not focused enough on victims of abuse

Peter Mandelson’s critics should remember that he is “still a human being”, Cherie Blair has said in an interview.

Blair added that the former Labour minister was “entitled to a fair trial” after he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. He denies criminal wrongdoing and has been released under investigation.

Germany misses climate targets as emissions barely fall in 2025

Greenhouse gases dropped just 0.1% last year as environment minister criticises lack of improvement

Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany have again missed targets set by the Climate Protection Act and barely fell at all in 2025.

Emissions decreased by just 0.1% last year compared to the previous year, according to data from the German Environment Agency.

In South Carolina, measles shows how far apart neighbors can be on vaccines

In South Carolina, some parents embrace vaccines, others opt out. Why do people make such different choices? A mix of politics, distrust and misinformation is pushing neighbors apart.

Brazil's ex-President Bolsonaro is in intensive care with pneumonia, hospital says

One of Bolsonaro's doctors described the former Brazilian president's medical condition as "serious."

Meta and Google trial: are infinite scroll and autoplay creating addicts?

Features woven into the fabric of platforms have been central to landmark social media harm case in US. How do they work?

It was as “easy as ABC”, claimed the lawyer prosecuting a landmark social media harm case against Meta and Google which heard closing arguments this week. The defendants were guilty, said Mark Lanier, of “addicting the brains of children”. Not true, replied the tech companies. Meta insisted providing young people with a “safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work”.

Features such as autoplay videos, infinite scrolling and constantly chirruping alerts woven into the fabric of online platforms were central to the six-week trial in Los Angeles, which has been compared to the cases against tobacco companies in the 1990s. But how do these features work and what are their consequences? Are they creating addicts rather than users or are they just giving consumers more of what they want?

Fetuses likely have more ‘forever chemicals’ in blood than thought – report

US test of 120 umbilical blood cord samples identified 42 Pfas compounds, which do not naturally break down

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New peer-reviewed research shows fetuses likely have much higher levels of Pfas “forever chemicals” in their blood than previously thought.

Testing of umbilical cord blood typically looks for a small number of common Pfas compounds, like Pfoa and Pfos. However, thousands of Pfas exist, and a new Mount Sinai study tested 120 umbilical blood cord samples that were previously found to contain up to four compounds.

‘Everything is going up’: Americans struggle with affordability despite Trump’s claims

US workers are finding it difficult to afford basic necessities as the president claims ‘the economy is roaring back’

US workers are still struggling with the cost of living despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises to fix the US affordability crisis.

The Guardian spoke to workers as an exclusive poll showed cross-party concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of the US economy.

My sisters and I had the same parents but were raised apart. It taught me there’s more to siblings than meets the eye

After my parents split up, my older sister and I lived with our dad while the youngest stayed with our mum. It became an experiment in nature v nurture – and had a profound effect on our relationships

There is a paradox at the heart of sibling relationships and it is this: that children raised in the same family are for ever bound by shared experiences, yet have different childhoods. The paradox is partly (and most commonly) explained by the topic of birth order theory – the idea that your position in the family shapes your personality and potential. Oldest children, for example, are born into an adult world, full of grown-up language and behaviour. Governed by anxious, inexperienced but still fresh parents, they bask in the glow of undivided attention. Their infancy will be markedly different to that of their little brother or sister who will be born into a family. These second-born children have a toddler as their role model/ally/nemesis, no new clothes, and they also have to share their parents’ attention. These parents are a little less fresh and little more savvy. By the time any subsequent children come along, parents are at their most relaxed and most exhausted. Youngest children get away with a lot (spoken as a true middle sibling).

But neat as birth order theory may be, our place in the family roll call cannot fully account for the ways in which we grow up “together apart” as siblings. To do that, we must examine – and in some cases untangle – all of the knottiness underpinning our accepted roles as “responsible firstborns”, “problematic middles” or “spoilt babies”. We need to look at the home environment, the state of the parents’ relationship, their careers, the pressures placed on each child on account of gender or aptitude, the expectations in families where a child has additional needs – or indeed, in the worst-case scenario, where a child may not have survived – before we can begin to comprehend our brother’s or sister’s version of events. Difficulties typically arise because of the slipperiness of memory, often shot through with profound emotions – making it hard to pull together a coherent and agreed-upon story of our pasts.

Opinion: An ancient, sophisticated palate

Researchers looking at foodcrusts on the pottery shards of ancient humans say there's evidence of a wide variety of ingredients, indicating that they may have been experimenting with "recipes."

Why women have an especially tough time in Senegal's prisons

Women charged with a crime in Senegal are at the mercy of a slow judicial process and prisons that may lack basic supplies. They also face stigma that robs them of familial and community support.

‘Every lap is survival’: Max Verstappen reflects on F1 Chinese GP qualifying woe

• Four-time world champion eighth in qualifying

• Failed to finish in the points in sprint race

Max Verstappen condemned his Red Bull’s performance as having reduced his efforts to a matter of “survival” in merely trying to complete a lap in Shanghai.

From the off the four-time champion had not been happy in the buildup to Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, dismissing his car on Friday as undriveable and saying: “We have never had anything this bad.”

‘As soon as I saw it, I knew the image’: Robby Ogilvie’s best phone picture

A Ford Cortina the colour of the sky against brightly coloured houses in Cape Town was a gift to the Scottish photographer

Edinburgh native Robby Ogilvie was visiting South Africa when he took this image. “I’d spent the first week in and around Kruger national park, photographing the culture, landscapes and wildlife, before moving on to Cape Town.”

Along with a friend from South Africa, Ogilvie visited the neighbourhood of Bo-Kaap. “The area is known for its brightly coloured houses, but it also carries a rich and complex history. There was a real feeling of community, and many of the houses felt like open studios; artists had taken over spaces to exhibit and sell their work.”

Global food supplies could be badly hit if Iran war drags on, says fertiliser boss

Yara’s Svein Tore Holsether says it would be ‘catastrophic’ if the strait of Hormuz was closed for a year

The boss of one of the world’s largest fertiliser companies has said global food supplies could be badly damaged this year if the Iran war becomes an extended conflict.

Svein Tore Holsether, the chief executive of Norway’s Yara International, has called on global leaders to consider the impact that soaring food prices will have in some of the world’s poorest countries “before it is too late”.

3/14: Saturday Morning

The U.S. struck one of Iran's key oil hubs on Friday, President Trump said on social media. Plus, the latest details on the Michigan synagogue attack.

Trump faces a ‘personal Vietnam’ in Iran | Sidney Blumenthal

He is stuck in a quagmire. His goals are elusive. His bombing does not force a surrender. He has no exit strategy. Good morning, Vietnam

Donald Trump is lost in his fog of war. He compounds confusion with improvised fabrications as his naive expectation of a lightning victory has been sunk in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, he felt certain, would easily follow the “perfect scenario” of Venezuela, accede to naming a leader who would instantly do his bidding, and there would be no disruption of the oil markets – “a strong game plan”, stated Karoline Leavitt, his White House press secretary, who defends each of his changeable excuses with equal ferocity.

There may be few if any facts underlying the delusions upon which Trump constructs his vapid explanations and evanescent strategies. The belief that coherent sense can be made out of Trump’s shuffling words is a weakness of the rational mind that refuses to accept the impulses of the inveterate demagogue for what they are. Searching for reason in the jungle of Trump’s tales may compel hopelessly sensible people to superimpose logic where there is none in order to satisfy the need for some semblance of soundness.

Don’t denounce Timothée Chalamet for what he said about opera and ballet – prove him wrong | Rebecca Humphries

For these art forms to thrive, they need to attract young people. The Oscar contender’s comments are just the conversation starter they need

• Rebecca Humphries is an actor and author

Timothée Chalamet thinks no one cares about opera or ballet. He told Matthew McConaughey so. Also, the entire world.

“I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this any more’,” Chalamet said in a recorded conversation for Variety.

Rebecca Humphries is an actor and author

With boom in prediction markets, some lawmakers worry about how to police themselves

House and Senate ethics committees give no financial disclosure guidance on event contracts or prediction markets — unlike stock, cryptocurrency and bond trades.

U.S. Embassy in Baghdad again urges Americans to leave Iraq as Trump touts strikes on Iran

In a post on Truth Social, President Trump claimed the U.S. had "destroyed 100% of Iran's Military capability." The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, meanwhile, urged Americans to "leave Iraq immediately."

‘You cannot unsee it’: what happened next for this year’s Oscar documentary nominees?

Films about prison abuse, ovarian cancer, women’s rights in Iran and more have impressed the Academy, but what real-world impact have they had?

• Oscars 2026: how to watch, nominations, what to read and predictions

The year 2025 was a banner one for nonfiction film, with several extraordinary documentaries that provided windows to unfathomable acts of courage, heart and vulnerability. Less so, unfortunately, for nonfiction cinema, it’s a difficult time for the production of politically challenging documentaries, whether in and about the US or abroad, and many projects struggled to find distribution after torturous paths to completion. (Cutting Through Rocks, the first Iranian documentary ever nominated for an Oscar, still has no streaming distribution and is only available in select theaters.)

Nevertheless, five incredible films make up the Oscars documentary slate this year – films that demonstrate how individual actions can challenge immense systems of oppression; how national agendas trickle into the idiosyncratic, marginal every day; and how one can find transcendence in the smallest of daily miracles. The very existence of these films feels improbable: one is composed almost entirely of police footage acquired through legal action. Another was filmed on contraband cell phones within Alabama state prisons. There’s a remarkably candid approach to processing terminal illness; an unprecedented record of Vladimir Putin’s propaganda efforts, filmed by a schoolteacher in rural Russia and smuggled out of the country; and an extremely rare glimpse into small-scale women’s rights efforts in north-west Iran.

‘My ideas are a little revolutionary’: ecologist Suzanne Simard on intelligent forests, the climate and her critics

Her research popularised the idea of the wood wide web, but the scientific backlash was brutal. As the author of The Mother Tree returns to the forest in a new book, she discusses her battle to reimagine our relationship with nature

In 2018, the ecologist and writer Suzanne Simard was conducting research in the forested Caribou Mountains of western Canada when a thunderstorm rolled in. She was with her two teenage daughters and her close friend and colleague, Jean Roach. They saw flashes of lightning, heard a loud rumble and then they smelled smoke. They were forced to run the half kilometre back to Simard’s truck as the trees behind them caught alight and the air grew thick. As they ran, animals burst out of the forest: a deer, a rabbit, a grey wolf. They reached the truck with no time to spare, all four of them covered in soot and dirt. Overhead, helicopters began circling the orange-black air, dropping water on the flames below.

Wildfires have become an ever bigger problem in Canada. The 2018 wildfires were the biggest in British Columbia’s history, but this record was broken in 2021, and then again in 2023, when fires consumed an area three times the size of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and the smoke travelled as far as New York City. The cause is not only global heating, which has brought hotter, dryer summers, but also the changing makeup of the forest. When logging companies clear forest, they replant it with fast-growing conifer species, but these trees are much more flammable than Canada’s diverse, native forest.

Reframing Georgia O'Keeffe's legacy and protecting the land she loved

Georgia O'Keeffe called the New Mexico high desert "my country," but Pueblo peoples predated her. A more complex view is emerging amid efforts to preserve the land.

‘Deliberate attack’: explosion damages Jewish school in Amsterdam

Mayor condemns ‘cowardly act’ on south side of city that caused limited damage and no reported injuries

An explosion has damaged a Jewish school in Amsterdam in what the city’s mayor described as “a deliberate attack against the Jewish community”.

The explosion early on Saturday in a residential neighbourhood on the south side of the city caused limited damage, the mayor, Femke Halsema, said in a press release, as police and firefighters arrived at the scene quickly.

Fallouts and financial woes: inside Heston Blumenthal’s sinking empire

Current and ex-staff claim demise of London restaurant can be traced back to the departure of chef’s right-hand man

Dinner by Heston was once one of the world’s most revered restaurants, known for its decadent and unusual dishes such as the “meat fruit”.

But Heston Blumenthal announced this week that he is winding down operations at the two Michelin-star restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge, London, saying it was because the tenancy had “finished”.

Wealthy British nationals fleeing Gulf conflict bypass UK to avoid tax bills

High-net-worth residents of UAE heading to Ireland and France to wait out missile attacks before tax year ends

Wealthy UK nationals fleeing war in the Gulf are seeking sanctuary in countries such as Ireland and France to avoid hefty tax bills back home.

In the face of possible demands from HM Revenue and Customs, high-net-worth individuals who had been living in the United Arab Emirates and neighbouring countries are hoping to wait out the missile and drone attacks elsewhere rather than return to the UK.

I had a ringside seat for the Iranian revolution. Foreign meddling didn’t work then either | Paul Taylor

Even as the first western journalist to interview Ayatollah Khomeini, I had no inkling of what was to come. Perhaps we should have learned from history

Watching Iran in flames, I can’t help wondering whether history is coming a grotesque full circle 47 years after the fall of the US-backed Pahlavi dynasty, or whether western powers are simply repeating past errors by attempting violent regime change from outside.

As a young reporter, I had a ringside seat for part of the 1979 revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and installed an austere Islamic republic headed by a Shia Muslim cleric with the titles of “leader of the revolution” and “guardian jurist” (vali-e faqih).

Pristine waters teeming with marine life: a deep dive into the Greek island of Alonissos

Divers come for one of the world’s most significant marine reserves, but there’s plenty to do on land too – from hiking trails and beaches to seafood tavernas

Greek divers surface around me shouting about “megalo” groupers. I’m surrounded by enormous grins above the water and big fish below. A happy place to be. A bunch of us, divers and snorkellers, are hanging around Agios Petros reef off the island of Alonissos, and there’s a reason the groupers are big here. The National Marine Park of Alonissos Northern Sporades, established in 1992, is Greece’s largest working marine protected area (MPA) – two bigger MPAs have just been created, but are not yet operational. The protective measures appear to be working, judging by the size, abundance and diversity of marine life – glassy waters teeming with colourful fish and precious shells make swimming here an absolute dream.

For those who like to go deeper, Alonissos is the site of Greece’s first underwater archaeological park and museum – the impressive Peristera wreck, with its giant cargo of amphorae preserved from the 5th century BC. This one is for certified divers descending with accredited local dive centres. I’m with one of those schools, Ikion Diving, but today we’re doing something more accessible. We’re in the village of Steni Vala for the launch of a citizen science project, the Highly Protected Mediterranean Initiative (much more fun than it sounds). Ikion is partnering with the universities of Thessaloniki and the Aegean to offer free snorkelling and diving trips logging native and alien species. I’m worried about my fish ID skills, but the effervescent biologist Katerina Konsta runs a great briefing and we’re given dive slates with images to mark (imparting a childish delight at playing scientist).

‘Everyone will tune in – she’s one of our own’: Jessie Buckley’s home town abuzz before Oscars

Excitement in Killarney will reach fever pitch on Sunday, when the actor is hotly tipped to become the first Irish woman to win best actress

If Jessie Buckley wins the Oscar for best actress on Sunday night, County Kerry will need no further proof of a cherished truism: to be born in this corner of Ireland really is the greatest gift that God can bestow. The award would be for Buckley’s performance in Hamnet, but for Killarney, her home town in the county nicknamed the Kingdom, credit will stretch back to her childhood, when she acted in local plays.

“Hollywood here we come!” proclaimed the newspaper Kerry’s Eye, underlining a sense that Buckley’s path to Hollywood for the 98th Academy Awards has been a collective journey propelled by her talent, determination and roots.

North Korea fires missiles into the sea as US and South Korea conduct military drills

Missiles were launched from an area near the capital Pyongyang, according to South Korea’s military

North Korea fired more than 10 ballistic missiles into the sea on Saturday, South Korea’s military said, as the US and South Korean forces conducted military drills and Donald Trump renewed overtures towards Pyongyang for dialogue.

Japan’s coast guard said it had detected what could be a ballistic missile that fell into the sea. It appeared to have fallen outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, public broadcaster NHK said, citing the military.

A corner of north London where food has become a battleground in the Israel-Gaza war | Jonathan Liew

A smashed window here, a provocative sticker there. In an age when protest feels increasingly meaningless, it’s no wonder that acts of petty symbolism are on the rise

First comes the hummus: studded with chickpeas, anointed with a little reservoir of olive oil, greedily smeared up with hunks of pitta bread and messy fingers. Then the tabbouleh, then some homemade falafels, and then the lentil soup, and already the senses are overloaded, plates and bowls spilling off the edge of the table. But there shall be no reprieve, for the mains are coming.

Maqluba for the meat-eaters – traditional Palestinian upside-down chicken and rice, decorated with lightly browned cauliflower florets, topped with razor-fine almonds. Stuffed aubergine and courgette for the veggies. Before you ask: yes, there will be dessert, and it’s baklava and homemade chocolate. Home time, and slowly you winch yourself upright, stagger sideways towards the door and vow never to do something so gluttonous and decadent ever again.