Gabbard testimony on Puerto Rico voting machines raises questions about role of Venezuela conspiracy theory

National intelligence director said voting machine seizure was requested by US attorney in Puerto Rico – who’s been trying to revive 2020 election conspiracy theory

When the US director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Thursday that her office seized voting machines from Puerto Rico, she said it was at the request of the office of the US attorney in Puerto Rico. Left unsaid was that the prosecutor, as the Guardian previously reported, has been the center of a push by Donald Trump supporters to revive a long discredited conspiracy theory purporting to link Venezuela to Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the conspiracy theory maintains, controlled electronic voting machines worldwide and remotely manipulated results in 2020 to deprive Trump of a presidential victory.

Moyes seeks clarity over Premier League’s decision not to deduct points from Chelsea

• Manager believes league has left itself open to criticism

• Anger at Everton over perceived double standards

David Moyes has called on the Premier League to provide a fuller explanation of why Chelsea were not deducted points for breaking its financial rules under the ownership of Roman Abramovich.

Everton were deducted 10 points in November 2023, reduced to six on appeal, plus a further two points later that season for breaches of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR). Nottingham Forest were deducted four points that season for a PSR breach. The Premier League had argued for a 12-point deduction for Everton over the first offence – a breach of £19.5m over a three-year period – and an eight-point deduction for Forest.

The Premier League announced on Monday that Chelsea had received a record fine of £10.75m, a suspended transfer embargo and a nine-month academy transfer ban for engaging in “deception and concealment” when making illicit payments totalling £47.5m to sign players during a seven-year period under Abramovich.

In the written reasons for the “sanction agreement”, the Premier League stressed that Chelsea would not have breached PSR rules and frequently commends the club’s new owners, Clearlake Capital, for self-reporting the breaches. A points deduction in this case “was not appropriate”, according to the agreement signed by Premier League chief executive Richard Masters.

There is anger and dismay at Everton over the perceived double standards at play in the Premier League’s disciplinary system. Moyes, who was West Ham manager when Everton broke financial rules and received the points deductions, believes the league has left itself open to criticism with the explanation given for Chelsea’s fine.

“I would actually like to hear a bit more about it,” the Everton manager said. “I’m expecting more of the details and why – and this isn’t against Chelsea as I wasn’t at Everton at the time we were deducted a huge points number. I don’t think they have explained it well enough in the reasoning what the fine was and why it was. I think it would be good if we heard a little bit more how they got to that decision of fine with Chelsea rather than a points deduction, for example.”

Cash handouts and AC limits: Iran war causes energy shock in Asia | The Latest

Across south-east Asia, governments are scrambling to find ways to conserve energy and shield the public from soaring costs, as war in the Middle East causes huge disruption in the global oil market. In Thailand, news anchors are ditching their jackets after orders to reduce air conditioning use, while government workers in the Philippines are operating on a four-day week. Asia relies heavily on imported energy, much of which passes through the strait of Hormuz, and officials have warned further measures could be considered if the energy crisis worsens. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s south-east Asia correspondent, Rebecca Ratcliffe.

Trump calls Nato allies ‘cowards’ for not helping in strait of Hormuz; US officials say more troops heading to Middle East – live

US president says ‘Nato is a paper tiger’, as officials tell Reuters news agency that more troops will be heading to the Gulf

Kuwait’s state oil firm KPC said its Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery was hit by multiple drone attacks early on Friday, causing a fire in some units, with no initial casualties reported, the state news agency said.

Firefighters responded immediately, with several units shut down as a precaution to ensure workers’ safety.

Mexico’s monarch butterfly population jumps 64%, offering hope for at-risk species

The insects covered its largest area since 2018, despite threats from habitat loss, climate crisis and pesticides

The population of monarch butterflies in Mexico increased 64% this winter, compared with the same period in 2025, offering a glimmer of hope for an insect considered at risk of extinction.

The figures, released this week by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico, showed that the area occupied by monarchs expanded to 2.93 hectares (7.24 acres) of forest from 1.79 hectares (4.42 acres) the previous winter, the largest coverage since 2018.

French IS member convicted of genocide for atrocities against Yazidis

Sabri Essid also found guilty of crimes against humanity after harrowing evidence from women enslaved by jihadist

A French member of Islamic State has been convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed against Yazidis in a historic judgment that highlighted the atrocities committed by jihadists.

The Paris criminal court found Sabri Essid, who was tried in his absence, directly participated in an organised system of killing, raping and enslaving members of the Iraqi ethnic and religious minority who are descended from some of the region’s most ancient roots.

Post your questions for Halle Bailey

Ahead of the release of her new film You, Me & Tuscany, the singer and actor will be taking your questions on everything from working with Beyoncé to The Little Mermaid backlash

You’ll probably know Halle Bailey best for two things: her role as Ariel in Disney’s 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, and appearing in the visual album for Lemonade by Beyoncé, who she also supported on tour as part of musical sister duo Chloe x Halle. The pair first found an audience on YouTube, and have since been nominated for five Grammys.

Bailey was only 19 when she was cast in The Little Mermaid, thanks due what director Rob Marshall described as her “otherworldly sensibility”. Of course the internet quickly found something to complain about, with much of the backlash going beyond the absence of cartoony bright red hair. “I expected it, honestly,” she told the Guardian. “We’re all human beings, so of course it’s going to hurt or sting a little bit, especially remarks like those.”

Tuskegee basketball coach who was handcuffed by police after game files $1m lawsuit

• Benjy Taylor is suing Morehouse, two campus officers

• Incident came after dispute over taunts, handshake line

Tuskegee men’s basketball coach Benjy Taylor filed a lawsuit against Morehouse College and two campus police officers on Friday, claiming he suffered emotional and physical harm when he was handcuffed and escorted off the court on 31 January.

“He has suffered financial harm, reputational harm, emotional harm as well as physical damages,” Harry Daniels, one of Taylor’s attorneys, told the Associated Press.

OpenAI's first crack at online shopping stumbled. It's preparing for the next wave

Etsy, Walmart and Shopify were quick to jump into Instant Checkout, but item information was often inaccurate and onboarding merchants was difficult.

Trump administration sues Harvard again over accusations of antisemitism

Lawsuit alleges university violated civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people in aftermath of war in Gaza

The Trump administration renewed its assault on Harvard University on Friday, filing a lawsuit in Massachusetts alleging the Ivy League institution violated the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people in the aftermath of the war in Gaza.

The lawsuit, shared publicly by the New York Times, accuses Harvard of allowing anti-Israel protesters to operate on campus “with impunity” following the 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Gaza and Israel’s massive military response.

Hachette pulls horror novel Shy Girl after suspected AI use

The publisher has cancelled the US release of Shy Girl by Mia Ballard and withdrawn the UK edition after weeks of online speculation about the novel’s origins

Hachette Book Group has withdrawn a horror novel after allegations circulated online that its author relied heavily on artificial intelligence. The book is to be discontinued in the UK after being published in November 2025, and its US launch date has been cancelled.

The book, Shy Girl by Mia Ballard, had been scheduled for release in the US this spring under Hachette’s Orbit imprint. However, the publisher confirmed it had halted publication after an internal review. The title has also been removed from online retailers including Amazon, and will no longer be distributed in the UK.

Trump: U.S. could end Iran military operations 'right now' but will continue so Iran can 'never rebuild'

President Donald Trump's comments followed reports that the Pentagon is sending up to 2,500 more Marines to the Middle East from San Diego.

The Bachelorette bet big on controversy. Is it any surprise it blew up in their faces?

The show’s last-minute cancellation over star Taylor Frankie Paul’s domestic violence footage is the sadly predictable result of a network overlooking red flags

This week was not a good one to be a Disney executive. Days ago, reports began circulating that Taylor Frankie Paul, the star of the Hulu series Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and ABC’s upcoming The Bachelorette, was involved in a domestic violence investigation stemming from a February incident with her ex-partner, Dakota Mortensen. (Disney is the parent company of Hulu and ABC.) By Tuesday, multiple outlets reported that production on the fifth season of Mormon Wives was down, as cast members refused to interact with Paul. The 31-year-old TikTok turned reality star, meanwhile, soldiered on with a gauntlet of Bachelorette promotional duties, speaking vaguely about “heavy times”. But on Thursday, video leaked online of a domestic violence incident from 2023; footage showed an intoxicated Paul throwing metal barstools at Mortensen and accidentally hitting her five-year-old daughter. By day’s end, the network cancelled the whole season of The Bachelorette, heavily advertised and filmed in its entirety last year, three days before its premiere.

You could say that this mess, which has drawn the attention of people previously unaware of MomTok or the Bachelorette, is sad, troubling or too complex for entertainment. (It is all of the above.) What you cannot say is that this is a surprise. To anyone with even a cursory understanding of the Mormon Wives franchise or time to Google, this debacle is sadly predictable – the likely result of banking on a famously divisive reality star to rejuvenate a flagging franchise, and the latest example of legacy media overlooking red flags for influencer clout. To be clear: Paul’s actions are her own, but this debacle – which will reportedly cost ABC tens of millions of dollars – is on the company.

Iran war-induced fertilizer shortage threatens Republicans in farm states ahead of midterms

Democrats are vying for competitive seats across farm country in 2026, and fertilizer shortages spurred by the Iran war give them a new affordability angle.

US company to pay $22.5m over newborn’s death after denying woman remote work

Chelsea Walsh prematurely gave birth after firm rejected work from home request in 2021 amid high-risk pregnancy

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An Ohio freight-brokerage firm must pay $22.5m in damages to a woman whom the company denied permission to work from home as she tried managing pregnancy complications – and then endured her newborn’s death after prematurely giving birth, a state court jury has decided.

The case centering on Chelsea Walsh, her late daughter Magnolia, and Total Quality Logistics (TQL) unfolded as many employers increasingly allowed remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic – but then pushed to get workers physically back into the office.

Former Met special constable who groomed then raped girl and woman jailed for 24 years

Gwyn Samuels, who committed crimes as James Bubb, befriended both victims online

A Metropolitan police special constable who raped a girl and a woman after “systematically” grooming them both online has been jailed for 24 years.

James Bubb, who now identifies as a woman named Gwyn Samuels, first sexually assaulted the girl when she was just 12 years old after befriending her online in 2018, the trial at Aylesbury crown court was told last year.

U.S. shoppers should brace for impact of higher oil prices, experts say

Experts warn that surging energy costs are likely to ripple through U.S. supply chains, resulting in higher prices online and in stores.

Urban Legend director Jamie Blanks dies aged 54

Australian film-maker behind cult horror films including Valentine and 2008’s Long Weekend was known for his pulpy take on hack’n’slash

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The cult Australian film-maker Jamie Blanks has died aged 54. He was best known for Urban Legend, the 1998 horror starring Jared Leto, Alicia Witt and Joshua Jackson.

On Friday morning, Blanks’ family issued a statement on X announcing his death:

As airport delays persist, travelers and TSA workers call for end to shutdown

Wait times at major U.S. airports continue as TSA officer callouts mount after employees missed their first full paycheck last week.

Trump administration unveils national AI policy framework to limit state power

AI industry leaders have opposed state-level regulatory efforts, arguing that a "patchwork" of laws would hobble innovation and give China a competitive edge.

Eid al-Fitr celebrations herald the end of Ramadan– in pictures

Under the shadow of war in the Middle East, Muslim worshippers around the world unite to celebrate the breaking of the fast

U.S. sues Harvard, alleging it failed to protect Jewish and Israeli students

The Trump administration argued that Harvard unlawfully discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students, in violation of federal civil rights law.

Around 2,200 Marines, 3 warships headed to Middle East as Iran war continues

The first Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is coming from the Pacific, is still making its way toward the region.

Influencers are drinking shots of olive oil and lemon juice. Should you?

Wellness enthusiasts on TikTok and Instagram claim the combination bestows glowing skin and better digestion

A shot of lemon juice and olive oil might be delicious on a salad – but would you drink it straight up?

That’s what wellness enthusiasts on TikTok and Instagram are doing, claiming it bestows glowing skin and better digestion, and supports the dubious process of “detoxing”.

The spring housing market is on, but mortgage rates just shot higher. Here's what to know.

This spring's housing market is on, but economic headwinds are pushing back most of the advantage that buyers have gained over the past year in affordability.

Palestinians celebrate Eid in Gaza, making the most of a fragile ceasefire

The ceasefire, in effect for the past six months, has brought some reprieve to Palestinians in Gaza despite continued hardship, displacement and Israeli restrictions on aid.

Senior European journalist suspended over AI-generated quotes

Mediahuis suspends Peter Vandermeersch, who says he ‘fell into trap of hallucinations’, after investigation by newspaper where he was once editor-in-chief

The publisher of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and the Irish Independent has suspended one of its senior journalists after he admitted using AI to “wrongly put words into people’s mouths”.

Peter Vandermeersch, the former head of the Irish operations at Mediahuis, said he “fell into the trap of hallucinations” – the term for AI-generated errors – when using the technology.

Football Daily | Will the League Cup be Arsenal’s gateway to glory?

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There has long been a notion that the League Cup, in its many sponsorship guises, can be a “springboard” for future success. No other trophy has ever achieved springboard status, not even the Emirates Cup. It seems the idea was born around the time José Mourinho’s Chelsea were on the rise, fuelled by Roman Abramovich’s totally legitimate takeover, winning the Carling Cup in 2005 and then rocketing to back-to-back Premier League titles. Many of that Blues squad have since spoken about the three-handled Georgian silver cup as if it were some gateway drug to glory. And that Chelsea team went on some trips. You wouldn’t understand, man. We saw five trophies in two years, man.

Am I alone or are there 1,056 others who see the irony in Xavi Simons declaring that, for Spurs, ‘every game is a cup final for us’ having just exited their third and final cup competition of the season?” – Glyn Berrington.

The way Barry deadpanned ‘Of the six teams that advanced to this season’s Round of Arsenal, only two (including Arsenal) made it into the quarter-finals’ puts me in mind of the old joke about 2010-11 Manchester City having ‘all the best players in the league (and Craig Bellamy)’. Fabulous stuff” – Rowan Sweeney.

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Spanish police say James Gracey's death was likely accidental

Police in Barcelona said the death of Jimmy Gracey, a University of Alabama student from Illinois who went missing on vacation, was likely an accident.

Chuck Norris – a life in pictures

The American martial artist and actor Chuck Norris has died. We look back at his key film and TV roles, relationships and public life

World’s top-rated Flat horse to race in Dubai despite conflict in the Gulf

• Calandagan to race in Sheema Classic next weekend

• Aga Khan Studs consulted staff in Dubai about decision

Calandagan, the world’s top-rated Flat horse in 2025, will fly to Dubai from Paris on Saturday to run in the Sheema Classic at Meydan next weekend, despite the continuing conflict in the Gulf region.

The gelding’s owner, Aga Khan Studs, consulted staff already in Dubai before deciding to give the green light to Francis-Henri Graffard’s five-year-old, the winner of four Group One events last season including the Japan Cup in November.

Prolonged Strait of Hormuz closure would cause oil prices to surge, experts warn

Plunging oil shipments transiting the Strait of Hormuz have sent global energy prices soaring to their highest level in years.

‘Not our war’: Gulf states weigh up options as existential threat from Iran conflict grows

Arab states have so far only acted defensively, but there is growing fear war is entering new, more dangerous phase

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The boom reverberated so loudly over Dubai marina that the windows of the surrounding skyscrapers and exclusive hotels gave a loud, disconcerting rattle.

“That sounded close, do you think a missile has hit something?” said a young man to his friend as they sipped coffees. Moments earlier, all mobile phones in the vicinity had sounded off with a shrill alarm, the new normal for those living in the Gulf, warning of missile and drone strikes in the area. Customers barely looked up.

Elizabeth Warren demands answers on costs, economic impact of 'illegal and reckless war'

The liberal Democratic firebrand ripped President Donald Trump, whom she said has 'dragged the United States into an illegal and reckless war.'

Chuck Norris, action icon and "Walker, Texas Ranger" star, dies at 86

Chuck Norris' family said his death at 86 was sudden, but did not share any details on the cause.

K-pop drones and a golf-course kangaroo: photos of the day – Friday

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

Book excerpt: "The Meaning of Your Life" by Arthur C. Brooks

In his latest book, the New York Times bestselling author writes of a cultural crisis: an increase in anxiety and depression, concurrent with a rise in social media use, during what he terms an "Age of Emptiness."

‘He was a very dear friend’: Cary Elwes on life after The Princess Bride – and losing Rob Reiner

The actor was Marlon Brando’s PA, and received career advice from Al Pacino. But it’s for the catchphrase-strewn classic that he’ll be best remembered. He talks about the film’s legacy, and its director Reiner, who he will ‘miss terribly’

In 1988, the actor Cary Elwes’s career had taken a nosedive. His latest film, a fantasy in which he played a farm boy turned swashbuckling hero, had bombed at the box office and the actor had been out of work for a year. One day he was in a New York restaurant when he spotted Al Pacino, so he went over and introduced himself. “He asked me if I was working and I said no,” Elwes recalls. “He said: ‘You need to exercise your [acting] muscles,’ and told me to go back to school and train.” Pacino put him in touch with the Lee Strasberg Institute, where he had studied with his friend and mentor Charlie Laughton. “I auditioned, I got in and ended up working with Al’s mentor, and it changed my life.”

The meeting with Pacino wasn’t the only life-changing event for Elwes that year, however. The “dud” movie in which he played the handsome farmhand, Westley? That was The Princess Bride, a fairytale spoof that was also an adventure story aimed at adults and children alike, and that its director Rob Reiner later said was a nightmare to market. A year after its theatrical release, it came out on VHS and suddenly took on a life of its own.

‘When he turned two we had party hats and cake’: how dogs became the new babies

One in three UK postcodes now has more dogs than children. Meet the Dinkwads (dual income, no kids, with a dog). Plus Tim Dowling’s guide to the best breeds for Dinkwads

Bryan Bell was at home when his one-year-old Patti collapsed, shaking like a leaf in a gale-force tornado. She was having a fit. Bell’s husband, John, was out of the house and he didn’t know what to do. “It was quite a traumatic experience because I didn’t know what was happening,” the 40-year-old PR recalls. Eventually, Patti’s fit subsided and the couple soon found a diagnosis from her doctor: their miniature dachshund had epilepsy. “She’s all medicated now, so it’s under control. But when it happens, you feel like: ‘Is this going to be the fit that’s too much for her little head?’”

Medical scares, behaviour issues and a tendency to eat you out of house and home – many dog owners will tell you that getting a four-legged friend bears more than a few similarities to having a young child. But as birthrates plummet across the world, a curious inverse trend has emerged: couples are getting dogs. Lots and lots of couples, in fact. They’re called Dinkwads (dual income, no kids, with a dog) and their numbers are growing. With one in three postcodes in England home to more dogs than children, you are now more likely to hear the howl of a basset hound than the sound of kids playing. If you counted up all the estimated 13 million dogs in the UK, from pint-sized chihuahuas to lolloping great danes, you’d only be two million short of the total number of children. And unlike the human birthrate – which in Britain hit a record low in 2024 – the number of dogs only looks set to increase.

CBS News begins new major round of layoffs: ‘This is really hard and really tough’

CBS News Radio to shutter after nearly 100 years as editor Bari Weiss tells staff cuts were ‘necessary’ decision

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CBS News announced it is laying off dozens of employees on Friday and ending CBS News Radio – its nearly 100-year-old radio service – as part of a strategic restructuring.

The news was announced in a memo to staffers from its editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, and president, Tom Cibrowski. Employees will be informed by the end of the day if their job has been affected, the two executives said in the memo.

Martial arts star Chuck Norris dies at 86

Norris karate chopped and kickboxed his way through more than a dozen action films, before leaping to TV in Walker, Texas Ranger.

Hodgkinson shrugs off kit mishap to cruise into world indoor 800m semi-finals

• Briton wins heat despite blister from borrowed spikes

• ‘I won’t be happy with anything other than gold’

No opponent has come close to knocking Keely Hodgkinson off her stride in 2026. But after breezing into the semi-finals of the world indoor championships, she revealed that her preparations had been interrupted by an airline, KLM, losing her kit for 48 hours on the flight to Poland.

It led to the overwhelming favourite for 800m gold having to train in whatever she could beg or borrow – and getting a blister as a result. Not that it seemed to bother her as she cruised into Saturday’s semi-finals with a dominant victory in 2min 0.32sec.

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump Pearl Harbor joke: ‘Everything he knows about it begins and ends with the Ben Affleck movie’

Late-night hosts panned Trump’s joke about the 1941 attack, addressed new unredacted Epstein emails and talked popular puppy names

With The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on hiatus until at least 27 March, late-night hosts on Thursday discussed Donald Trump’s snafu while meeting Japan’s prime minister, his caginess over Iran, and new findings in the Epstein investigations.

Chuck Norris, prolific action star and martial arts champion, dies aged 86

Actor who rose to fame after starring in Bruce Lee’s The Way of the Dragon also became a TV fixture with Walker, Texas Ranger

Chuck Norris, the former world karate champion who used his fight prowess to become the star of a string of low-budget but financially successful action movies, has died aged 86.

His family posted a message on social media saying Norris had died on Thursday, adding: “While we would like to keep the circumstances private, please know that he was surrounded by his family and was at peace.”

‘Yes to fields of wheat, no to fields of iron’: how the world’s greenest country soured on solar

In Denmark, the spread of solar panels has become a divisive issue among voters, especially in rural areas

In one telling of the story, the golden fields of a proud farming nation are under attack. Besieged by an industrial sprawl of solar panels, they are being smothered at the behest of an urban elite.

That narrative has failed to thrive in conservative heartlands such as Texas and Hungary, which have embraced solar power while lambasting green rules. But it is taking root in Denmark, the most climate-ambitious nation on Earth. “We say yes to fields of wheat,” said Inger Støjberg, the leader of the rightwing populist Denmark Democrats in a speech in 2024. “And we say no to fields of iron!”

Police planned to disperse Isaac Herzog protest in Sydney if crowd hit 6,000, encrypted messages suggest

Senior public servant wrote ‘police will be dispersing them if numbers exceed capacity’ while premier says protesters confronted after attempting to march

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Police planned to disperse the crowd at a Sydney protest against the visiting Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, if it exceeded 6,000 people, according to correspondence between senior New South Wales public servants.

The messages released under freedom of information (FoI) laws contain information not referenced in public comments by the NSW premier, Chris Minns, and the police commissioner, Mal Lanyon.

When your home country is ravaged by war, is it possible to stay neutral? | Shadi Khan Saif

Refusing to take sides in wartime can be dangerous. The ‘choice’ for civilians trying to survive is often an illusion

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Living in London, my elder brother – someone I have always looked up to – makes good use of his relative proximity to our ancestral home in Afghanistan. He travels back and forth so often that, from my base in Melbourne, I sometimes joke he has visited our village more times in the past few years than I have visited any other Australian city.

His most recent trip, however, did not go as planned. Flight disruptions linked to escalating tensions in the Middle East left him stranded in Istanbul for several days. Eventually he gave up and flew back to London, missing both the anniversary of our mother’s death in Kabul and the Eid celebrations many of the family members had hoped to mark together at the end of Ramadan.

‘It all feels very natural’: Britain’s sauna boom heats up as people seek warmth of human connection

Evidence suggests saunas can boost heart health, but their real power may lie in bringing people together in an increasingly digital world

From fields to floating pontoons, in horseboxes, barrels and beach huts, saunas are springing up across Britain. The British Sauna Society now lists about 640 saunas – up from 540 at the start of the year – while a recent report predicted that the UK could become the world’s largest sauna market by 2033, outpacing even Finland and Germany.

“The continuing growth suggests that the peak has still yet to come – if there is one,” said Gabrielle Reason, the society’s director. But are saunas a tonic for the nation’s health – or a wellness fad with hidden risks?

Dog digs up possible link to notorious 19th-century Devon murder case

Owner of labrador says bottle find may be connected to poisoning that led to one of England’s last public hangings

A man in Devon believes his beloved dog has dug up a key piece of evidence in his back garden connected to a notorious Victorian murder case.

Paul Phillips, 49, told reporters that his labrador, Stanley, recovered a blue glass bottle with the words “Not to be taken” written on the side from their home in Clyst Honiton.

How rising fuel prices impact consumers shopping in stores or online

Rising fuel prices can impact consumers beyond the gas pump. Oil prices have surged more than 40% since the Iran war effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz. The price hike can impact everything from cargo ships crossing the Pacific to the delivery van pulling up outside your home - and the costs could quickly trickle down to retailers and consumers. Charlie D'Agata has the latest on the war and Kelly O'Grady explains the rising oil prices' impact on consumers.

Fed Governor Waller urges caution for now, says rate cuts possible later in the year

Waller said in a CNBC interview that recent developments require a more conservative approach.

Matisse, 1941-1954 review – hit after glorious hit in a show of life-enhancing genius

Grand Palais, Paris
An epic collection of the artist’s final 13 years of work explodes with the stunning colours and spiky cutouts that redefined art

Forget the joy and energy of youth – your best days might yet be ahead. Henri Matisse’s were, even when he barely made it out of surgery alive in his early 70s as war was breaking out across France. Sitting in his wheelchair, his hand wobblier and weaker than ever, his body scarcely able to muster the strength to stand and paint, he reinvented himself and reshaped modern art in the process.

Centre Pompidou and the Grand Palais’ huge exploration of the last years of Matisse’s life – from his surgery in 1941 to his death in 1954 – is a dizzying, joyous celebration of colour, form, line, light and then a whole bunch more colour. It’s so good, so beautiful, so totally overwhelming. It was always bound to be – it’s Matisse, with all the resources of France’s vast collection of Matisse works. It’s a show full of hits.

Georgia woman charged with murder over alleged use of abortion pills

A 31-year-old Georgia woman has charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an abortion.

Couple sees rolled-up carpet removed from home as neighbor disappears

In the summer of 2013, Minnesota resident Gary Herbst seemingly disappeared. Years later, investigators made a startling discovery. Peter Van Sant has the story for "48 Hours."

The greatest challenge Farage has ever faced – convincing the world he was never besties with Donald Trump | Marina Hyde

The Reform UK leader has belatedly clocked that most British people really don’t like the US president on whose coat-tails he has spent the past decade riding

At last, the culture has thrown up a split more nauseatingly up itself than Gwyneth Paltrow’s from Chris Martin. It is Nigel Farage’s attempt to consciously uncouple from Donald Trump, a man up whose backside he’s spent the past decade most firmly lodged. Nigel’s made such a massive, self-satisfied show of his real estate in the presidential large intestine for 10 years now that I actually don’t think non-surgical extraction is possible at this stage. He doesn’t just get to walk away whistling. The only way out is a full Faragectomy. I’ll give the president a piece of drone fuselage to bite down on.

Anyway: conscious uncoupling. Back in the day, you’ll remember, Gwyneth and the Coldplay singer deployed this particular phrase when announcing their marital split. Did the public love it? They did not. The general vibe – as with so much of Her Vajesty’s output – was that she would do even marriage failure more smugly and unachievably than mere plebs could ever. The pivot from gushing about her perfect marriage to gushing about her perfect divorce felt like mere days.

Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist

What a Time to be Alive! by Marina Hyde (Guardian Faber, £20). To support the Guardian, order your signed copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

The Tech Download: Agentic tools and chips take center stage at Nvidia's 'Super Bowl of AI'

CNBC's Katie Tarasov shares her key takeaway's from the world's most valuable company's annual AI conference

Two people arrested after trying to enter UK nuclear submarine base

Man and woman, one of whom is understood to be Iranian, held after asking to enter sensitive military site

Two people have been arrested, one of whom is understood to be Iranian, after they tried to enter the Faslane nuclear submarine base in Scotland in what may have been an attempt at espionage.

A man, 34, and a woman, 31, were detained by Police Scotland after they had asked to enter one of Britain’s most sensitive military sites late on Thursday afternoon. The base is home to the UK’s Trident submarines and not open to the public.

Cocktail of the week: Bear by Carlo Scotto’s wild garlic martini – recipe | The good mixer

Herb is the word in this pungent seasonal infusion with a taste of honey

It’s wild garlic season, which is as much cause for celebration on the drinks trolley as it is in the kitchen. Forage your own, ideally before the plants flower, or ask a decent greengrocer to get some in for you.

Matthew Wakeford, sommelier, Bear by Carlo Scotto, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

‘She sounded like the cosmos breathing’: David Byrne, Flying Lotus and more on the greatness of Alice Coltrane

The radical work of the musician and composer was dismissed by sexist critics and overshadowed by the legacy of her late husband John. But today, musical stars from Doja Cat to David Byrne all champion her experimental sound

It is 19 years since Alice Coltrane’s death and more than half a century since her best known albums, yet only now is her first biography, Andy Beta’s Cosmic Music, being published. The first major exhibition dedicated to her took place last year in LA, too, and she’s championed by musicians from mainstream to left field, to the point there’s now even an abundance of cosmic jazz harpists on festival lineups. “For so long it seemed like her contributions were overlooked,” says her grandnephew Steven Ellison, AKA the psychedelic electronic and hip-hop musician Flying Lotus, who’s worked with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Thom Yorke and Herbie Hancock alongside his own acclaimed solo material. “As I was growing up, it seemed like everyone just wanted to ask her about John Coltrane.”

Of course John Coltrane was a musical titan. But, as Cosmic Music spells out, Alice was integral to the radicalism of her husband’s late, gamechanging period from the masterpiece A Love Supreme onwards. Not only did they create a sense of stability from 1963 in raising a family and marrying, post his quitting heroin, but they were partners in spiritual and musical exploration. She was a formidable musician before she met him, too. As pianist Alice McLeod, she was “known as a badass on the scene”, says Carlos Niño, longtime California “beat scene” colleague of Flying Lotus and, lately, producer of André 3000’s avowedly Alice-inspired New Blue Sun album; her skills honed in Detroit’s gospel churches and playing Stravinsky and Rachmaninov for pleasure by her mid-teens.

Over 10% of TSA officers call out nationwide in single day as partial shutdown drags on

TSA says more than 10% of its officers called out nationwide on Wednesday, with callout rates as high as 38% in Atlanta and Houston. The staffing shortages forced some security checkpoints to close in Houston and Philadelphia. Skyler Henry reports.

Norway’s crown princess says she was ‘deceived’ by Jeffrey Epstein

Mette-Marit says she ‘did not know he was a sex offender’, despite Googling him three years after his prison sentence

Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit, has said she was “manipulated and deceived” by Jeffrey Epstein as she spoke publicly for the first time about her years-long relationship with the late sex offender.

She also claimed that she “did not know he was a sex offender or an abuser” – despite telling him in an email in 2011, three years after he had been sentenced to 18 months in prison and pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from girls as young as 14, that she had recently Googled him.

The war in Iran is ripping up the Gulf’s plan for stability | Sanam Vakil

As missiles fall from the sky and energy infrastructure is targeted, the limitations of relying on the US for protection are becoming all too obvious

For more than two weeks, missiles and drones have been crossing the skies of the Gulf, as a war many in the region sought to avoid – between the USand Israel, and Iran – continues to escalate. Airlines are diverting flights, shipping routes are being disrupted and air defence systems across the region are operating at constant alert. Now, with attacks extending to energy infrastructure including gas facilities and production sites, it is likely that the war has entered into a dangerous phase of escalation.

Yet the governments now living with these risks were among those that most tried to prevent the conflict, encouraging negotiations in recent months and warning about the dangers of escalation.

Sanam Vakil is the director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House

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.

Too many, bro? Broaching the subject of men’s lapel messaging at the Oscars

All the talk on red carpet night was of leading guys such as Adrien Brody and Leonardo DiCaprio flashing the bling

While the eyes might be the window to the soul, lapels are certainly doing some talking. On the Oscars red carpet last Sunday night, Hollywood’s leading men flashed a lot of bling on their suits.

From Adrien Brody who wore an astronomically large brooch titled Ulysses, arguably as big as the James Joyce tome is thick, to a clean-shaven Pedro Pascal, who distracted from his newly bare chin with a silk and feather Chanel Camélia brooch, lapels were vying for the spotlight.

BTS: Arirang review – the world’s biggest pop band return with dumb fun and downright weirdness

(Big Hit Music)
Ending a hiatus that began in 2022, the septet recapture a distinctiveness that had been threatening to ebb away

The general consensus seems to be that as BTS’s commercial stock has gone stratospheric – more than 500m units sold worldwide, including over 104bn streams, making them the bestselling Asian act of all time – the actual music has become more and more irrelevant. Before taking their hiatus in 2022 to fulfil their mandatory military service in South Korea, their saccharine, English-language bops such as Dynamite and Butter – while gargantuan global hits – had smothered the K-pop-specific idiosyncrasies that peppered their earlier material. By 2020’s double whammy of Map of the Soul: 7 and Be, the band’s early years as a hip-hop-focused collective were a distant memory, and thanks to a more westernised sound and studio cast list, so was their identity as a Korean act.

On the eagerly anticipated Arirang – pointedly named after a Korean folk song dating back to 1896, and presented with the tagline “born in Korea, playing for the world” – the septet do their best to right those wrongs. Crucially, it manages to capture the K-pop spirit of experimentation while welding it to a litany of memorable hooks. And when western collaborators are brought in, they’re interestingly off-kilter, including outsider rapper-producer Jpegmafia, and producer El Guincho, known for his work with Björk and Rosalía.

Don’t mention the M-word: are mutant X-Men about to show up en masse in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

An intriguing chat about warped DNA in the record-breaking trailer for the new Spider-Man movie could mean a host of long-awaited arrivals in the MCU

There was a time when the mere mention of the term “mutant” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was frowned upon. Rival studio 20th Century Fox owned the rights to the X-Men and with it the whole idea of a parallel branch of humanity, which meant superheroes were contractually obliged to have received their powers from somewhere else. Radioactive accidents, experimental serums, infinity stones, the bite of an unusually committed arachnid: Marvel tried them all, but left the mutation thing alone. Occasionally, comic book icons such as Scarlet Witch were retconned in the MCU to remove their X-gene origins, but for the most part, the very notion of mutation seemed to be placed under narrative quarantine – as if this were a door the studio had quietly agreed not to open.

This week saw the record-breaking release of the debut teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and it was immediately clear that something had changed. We all know the X-Men are coming to the MCU: Deadpool and Wolverine have already had their own movies, while various mutants have turned up in post-credit scenes and brief multiversal detours. Now Spidey seems to be edging close to the same territory.

He's one reason why aid cuts weren't as dire for the HIV population as predicted

Harerimana Ismail of Uganda is a community health worker who checks on kids with HIV. He lost his salary after the Trump administration's aid cuts but he keeps doing his job.

Behind the bombast, Trump will be worried: when he tries to stop the war on Iran, will anyone listen? | Simon Tisdall

Though the president wields great power, the conflict in the Middle East is spiralling in unforeseen ways that he may not be able to control

What a pity Benjamin Netanyahu remains at large after an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza was issued in 2024. Had he been detained, as he certainly should have been, the peoples of Iran, Lebanon, the Gulf – and Israel itself – might have been spared much present-day pain and suffering.

The Israeli prime minister’s lifelong, passionate obsession with eradicating the real and imagined threats posed by Iran was reportedly a key factor in prompting Donald Trump’s abrupt, unprovoked plunge into all-out war. Netanyahu should be in jail, not committing more crimes while the powerful but ego-driven US president negligently looks on.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

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.

Estonia exports a modernist, Glasgow gets poetic and Leonora Carrington goes wild – the week in art

Konrad Mägi is given his time to shine, Fiona Banner hits a word-picture high and Carrington takes over the home of Sigmund Freud – all in your weekly dispatch

Konrad Mägi
You mean you haven’t heard of “Estonia’s greatest modernist painter”? Who knows, this exhibition may put his name in lights.
• Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, from 24 March to 12 July

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Whidbey by T Kira Madden; Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan; Killing Me Softly by Christie Watson; The Dangerous Stranger by Simon Mason; Astronaut! by Oana Aristide

Killing Me Softly by Christie Watson (Phoenix, £20)
In her second psychological thriller, Watson, a former nurse, perfectly captures the frenetic atmosphere and mordant humour of an under-resourced A&E department in a city hospital. The plot revolves around three strongly drawn characters: senior nurse Aoife, whose extramarital trysts with clinical lead Michael help keep her sane, and whose new intake includes the naive, sanctimonious Eden and the more experienced but alarmingly cynical Sophie. After their arrival, the death rate spikes: long wait times may play a part, but Eden makes mistakes and Sophie has an attitude problem … The conclusion is surprising yet authentic in a story that is ultimately less about individual culpability than the policy failures of successive governments.

Whidbey by T Kira Madden (Tinder, £20)
Native Hawaiian writer Madden’s powerful debut novel explores both the aftermath of child sexual abuse and the commodification of trauma. It’s summer 2013, and former reality TV star Linzie King is publicising her ghostwritten memoir of abuse at the hands of Calvin Boyer, the adult son of the school bus driver. It contains information about Boyer’s other victims, among them Birdie Chang who, unhappy with the appropriation of her story and trying to escape media scrutiny, has fled Brooklyn for Whidbey Island in Washington’s Puget Sound. Linzie is grappling with the narrative produced by the ghostwriter – the truth is considerably more complicated – and Boyer’s mother, who has always defended him, blaming his “sickness”, is struggling to process her feelings after he is deliberately run over and killed. A satisfying mystery, although whodunnit takes second place to Madden’s unflinching, unsettling examination of how girls are conditioned into compliance, and the discrepancy between lived experience and society’s preferred “victim narrative”.

Sports quiz of the week: youngsters, old timers, records, protests and posh grub

Have you followed the big stories in football, rugby, golf, baseball, horse racing, winter sports, F1, snooker and more?

Trump is dismantling democracy, reports find. And, Treasury to take over student loans

Recent studies show the U.S. is slipping further from democracy. And, the Trump administration plans to transfer federal student loans from the Education Department to the Treasury Department.

Fire experts ‘kept awake’ over growing hazard of lithium-ion batteries

Fire service warns ubiquity of batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations

Lithium-ion batteries represent a new technological hazard that one fire science expert has said keeps him awake at night, as fire service chiefs warn the ubiquity of the batteries in everyday products is outpacing public understanding and safety regulations.

The blaze that devastated a historic building in Glasgow and resulted in the closure of Central Station, Scotland’s largest rail interchange, is believed to have started in a shop selling vapes, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries. Glasgow’s Central Station has since reopened.

Weather tracker: Unseasonal storms hit parts of Pakistan and India

Karachi particularly badly affected with 18 people killed, more than 50mm of rain and winds gusting up to 60mph

Unseasonally wet weather struck southern Pakistan and north-west India on Wednesday, as heavy rain rolled in from the west, accompanied by thunderstorms, hail, and strong winds.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, was particularly badly affected, locally recording more than 50mm of rain with winds gusting up to 60mph. Walls, buildings, and a pedestrian bridge collapsed, with flooding and power outages across the city. At least 18 people were killed and several more injured, many by structural collapses, with other deaths attributed to a fallen tree and a lightning strike.

‘Agriculture of life’: the Rio families growing bananas to protect the world’s largest urban forest

In the middle of the city, traditional growers blend crops with native species to preserve Pedra Branca state park’s biodiversity

The sound of the scythes wielded by brothers Jorge and Ubirajara Cardia breaks the silence in the hills of Vargem Grande, in the south-west zone of Rio de Janeiro city. Quilombola from the Cafundá Astrogilda community, they harvest bananas the same way their ancestors used to. Every week, they select the bunches of prata, maçã, and Cavendish bananas, cut them down and, on the back of their mules, go down the hillside with the newly harvested crop.

Through sloping ways in the forest, they travel about 5km (3 miles) along paths first opened by the Indigenous Tupinambá people and enslaved workers of African descent.

Forget daffs – it’s edible alliums like wild garlic that spell spring in the garden for me

You can pep up your cooking by growing wild garlic, crow garlic and three-cornered leek

Unlike most gardeners, I’m not especially captivated by spring bulbs. I do love that they symbolise the return of fairer weather, but I only have the tulips and narcissi that I adopted when we moved here and, every autumn, I fail to consider planting more to replenish their dwindling numbers. Lucky for me, I also adopted the kind of spring bulb that I’m more inclined towards – because they’re edible. Wild alliums are what I’m really looking for to herald the arrival of spring.

Too many edible wild plants are only edible in theory, in my opinion. I’m mostly of the “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should” school of foraging. But that’s not the case when it comes to the most well-known member of this wild allium group. The strongly flavoured leaves of wild garlic (Allium ursinum) cover the woodland floor wherever they are resident, producing clusters of white, star-shaped flowers that are edible too – but leave most of them for the pollinators please! I’m a big fan of this delectable plant and am fortunate enough that it has made a home in my front garden. As with all foraging endeavours, make sure you’re 100% certain you have identified the plant correctly, pick where you are allowed, and always leave plenty behind. Fortunately, when it comes to this group of plants, it’s fairly easy to know if you have gone wrong as all the leaves should smell strongly of and taste like garlic or onions.

Florida homeowners insurance company accused of siphoning profits

As Florida moves homeowners' policies out of its state-run insurer of last resort, insiders question one new company's finances.

Israel launches more strikes on Tehran as Iran continues attacks on Gulf oil facilities

The latest strikes come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel would "hold off on future attacks" on Iran's energy infrastructure, following Trump's request.

Hungary officials ‘gave Ukrainian forced injection’ after raid on bank vehicles

Kyiv sources say they think injection contained relaxant meant to make people more talkative in interrogations

Hungarian security operatives administered a “forced injection” to one of the Ukrainians detained earlier this month during a dramatic raid on bank vehicles carrying gold bars and tens of millions of dollars and euros in cash, sources have told the Guardian.

Hungary’s TEK anti-terrorism police detained seven Ukrainians from the state savings bank, Oschadbank, on 5 March. They were accompanying a convoy of two armoured cars from Vienna to Ukraine, as it transited Hungary in what Kyiv claims was a regular transfer of state funds. Hungarian officials have claimed it was money for the “Ukrainian war mafia”, without giving details.

Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo recalled in 35-man England squad

• Eleven of those named will be rested for first match

• Lewis Hall in, Trent Alexander-Arnold left out

Thomas Tuchel has recalled Harry Maguire and Kobbie Mainoo for the Wembley friendlies against Uruguay and Japan in an enlarged England squad of 35 players. The manager said he has picked almost two groups for the matches in order to give opportunities to fringe players and, initially, rest to other more established ones at this critical stage of the season.

Tuchel’s other headlines were the decisions to bring back Lewis Hall, Fikayo Tomori, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Dominic Solanke. He has also given a first call-up to James Garner. Tino Livramento is back. The most eye-catching omissions were those of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Morgan Gibbs-White and Ollie Watkins, who have to fear for their World Cup places.

Resident Evil at 30: how Capcom’s horror opus has survived and thrived

From owing a debt to obscure Japanese horror Sweet Home to the influence of Aliens and Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the franchise continues to petrify players three decades on

To many of us playing and writing about video games in the 1990s, Resident Evil seemed to come out of nowhere. The emerging PlayStation and Saturn consoles were all about slick, bright arcade conversions – the shiny thrills of Daytona and Tekken – and Japanese publisher Capcom was in a rut of coin-op conversions and endless sequels to Street Fighter and Mega Man. Scary games were rare at the time and mostly confined to the PC. So when the news of a horror title named Biohazard (the Japanese name for the series) started to emerge in 1995, it caught the attention of games journalists as it seemed radically out of step with prevailing trends. Games were about power, but as early demos quickly revealed, Resident Evil was about vulnerability.

Thirty years later, it’s still here. The series has sold more than 180m copies worldwide, with 11 core titles and dozens of spinoffs and remakes, as well as film, television and anime tie-ins. Its characters and monsters are icons, its tropes now embedded in game design practice. What has allowed it to not only survive but flourish in such a rapidly changing industry? Why do we still let it scare us?

From trackers to gummies and CCTV, society has been gripped by sleep hysteria | Alice Gregory

We’re obsessing about sleep like never before. But much of the messaging is exaggerated, distorted and unhelpful

A few decades back, people didn’t care as much about sleep. Margaret Thatcher led by example, getting only four hours a night. But over recent years, there’s been pushback on the narrative that sleep doesn’t matter. It does. Anyone who has worked night shifts, had their nights disrupted by a newborn baby or delved into gruesome historical literature about sleep will agree.

In the 1960s, a high-school student in the US, Randy Gardner, was kept awake for 11 days for a study on the impact of sleep deprivation. He experienced symptoms including delusions, irritability and a lack of coordination. More recently, scientific literature has highlighted links between the way we sleep and our mental and physical health. This has all led to the realisation that sleep matters, and it becoming a particular focus of the wellness industry. There are sleep trackers, podcasts, influencers, supplements and smelly sprays to help. Sleep dismissal appears to have now been replaced by sleep hysteria.

Alice Gregory is co-director of the Royal Holloway Sleep Laboratory and author of Nodding Off: the Science of Sleep from Cradle to Grave

Reheated rivalry: why I’m the champion of leftovers

Bringing food back to life is a great kitchen skill. No, you can’t just microwave it

There is nothing lovelier than seeing a cook do their thing. By “doing their thing”, I do not mean just going about kitchen work – that is often excruciating to watch (why are they cutting onions like that?) I mean doing their thing: their culinary equivalent of a Mastermind subject, that one dish or process that they do so well, and with such evident pride, that the most crotchety backseat cook is forced to shut up.

Take my partner’s method for making fish-finger sandwiches, which involves frying the fish fingers in butter, then creating an in-pan sweatbox to melt artisanal cheese on to them and custom blending condiments. It creates, on average, as much washing up as a full cooked dinner. Others have a special pancake hack or carrot cake recipe, and people tend not to let these things go unnoticed – it’s always my salad dressing, possessive, but we forgive their hubris, because each of us has “A Thing” of our own.

‘Hybrid organ’: how a union of trees and fungi could revolutionise forest management

A US startup supplies spray for fast-growing loblolly pines with the hope of increasing biodiversity – and reducing the need for artificial fertiliser

At a commercial tree nursery near Evans, western Louisiana, 5m pine seedlings are packed on to 12 vast circular irrigation tables, each as wide as a football field. Last September, many of these young trees were sprayed with what looked like muddy water.

The substance was in fact a liquid extract teeming with hundreds of species of wild soil fungi. Brad Ouseman, the nursery manager, is confident he will see results from this fungal inoculation, which is intended to improve yields and reduce the need for artificial fertilisers.

Grace Ives: Girlfriend review – bedroom-pop auteur goes widescreen for a gorgeous sobriety epic

(True Panther/Capitol)
The New Yorker’s third album leaves behind her DIY origins to channel cult pop classics by Lorde and Sky Ferreira

New Yorker Grace Ives broke out as a bedroom pop artist, self-producing 2nd, her 2019 debut, on her Roland MC-505 and carefully expanding her sound for 2022’s appealingly messy Janky Star. Her third album abandons caution in windswept, hyperdetailed songs that streak by like big city streetlights and shimmer with cosmic awe.

Ives escaped her bedroom in more than one sense. Janky Star reflected her development of a healthier relationship to substances, yet she hit new lows after its release, making sobriety non-negotiable. She went to write in California, finding safety in a fresh context rather than trying to change alone at home. Her determination and vulnerability fuel Girlfriend, which shares the conspiratorial sweetness and broken-mirror glitter of cult pop classics by Lorde (Melodrama) and Sky Ferreira (Night Time, My Time).

From mall to torture site: Venezuela debates El Helicoide prison's future

Once a futuristic shopping mall, El Helicoide became one of Venezuela's most feared prisons. Now, as the country changes, so does its fate — erase it, rebuild it, or remember what happened inside.

Delcy Rodríguez replaces Venezuela’s top military commanders

Interim president announces changes after firing defence minister, who was close to Maduro, the leader ousted by US

Venezuela’s interim president has said she has replaced all her senior military commanders, the latest in a flurry of changes since the US ousted Nicolás Maduro.

Delcy Rodríguez announced the changes in a social media post a day after firing the long-serving defence minister, who had been close to Maduro, and replacing him with a former intelligence chief.

'They are brainwashed': Iranian diaspora clash over Middle East war | The View From

As the war between Iran, the US, and Israel escalates, another battle is playing out on the streets of London where the Iranian diaspora is divided over the future of their homeland. Some condemn the strikes on Iran as imperial overreach; others see them as a chance to end decades of authoritarian and theocratic rule. Over the last two weeks, The Guardian has filmed with protestors from both communities, capturing their anger and their hopes as Iran’s fate hangs in the balance.

Ronnie O’Sullivan makes snooker history with 153 break at World Open

• O’Sullivan snookered Ryan Day at start of first frame

• Seven-time world champion won 5-0 to reach semi-finals

Ronnie O’Sullivan has made the highest break in professional snooker by hitting a 153 at the World Open in Yushan, China.

The 50-year-old achieved the feat after leaving Ryan Day in a snooker to begin the opening frame of their quarter-final and the Welshman’s failed escape attempt gave O’Sullivan a free ball.

‘Weirdness, paranoia and extremity’: why HBO’s Neighbors is TV’s most fascinating show

The Josh Safdie-produced docuseries draws us into a bizarre variety of alternately relatable and scarily alienating neighbor disputes

Once upon a time, I worked as a local reporter in small-town Montana. The job, in which I had to make actual cold calls and regularly attend local council meetings, was extremely instructive; nothing teaches you about the idiosyncrasies of people like showing up at their door and hearing their community concerns. During my time there, we ran several extremely in-the-weeds stories about a rancher’s proposed water bottling plant, which was vehemently opposed by neighbors for its offensive sight and sound (and, secondarily, potential pollution). The details of the fight – and it was a very contentious fight – are hazy now, but the lesson is not: if there is one thing I learned from local reporting, it’s that nothing, absolutely nothing, turns people into the most ghoulish versions of themselves like threats, real or perceived, to one’s property.

I recalled this water bottling brouhaha a lot while watching Neighbors, a brilliant new docuseries on HBO which captures this lesson in its most contemporary, cancerous American iteration better than perhaps anything I’ve ever seen. (Taylor Sheridan’s mega-popular drama Yellowstone, essentially a property rights soap for dads, doesn’t come close.) Over five riveting episodes – the sixth and final premieres tonight – Neighbors takes a hyper-stylized, fish-eye lens to disputes of proximity and the fuzzy limits of personal space. The issues at hand are at once mundane and completely unhinged: a gay couple in Kokomo, Indiana, are furious that their neighbor has built a farm, with its attendant goat smell, in their cul-de-sac; a retired state senator in Texas resents the woman across the street for building a nine-foot-tall concrete “cartel” wall around her house; two tanned, blond women in Florida viciously fight – physically, emotionally, via competing surveillance systems – over a cumulative 35 sq ft strip of grass between their two driveways. It is extravagantly petty, extremely stressful (naturally – executive producers include A24 and Marty Supreme team Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein) and often completely unhinged. It is easily the best TV I’ve watched this year.

What president had the lowest approval rating of the 20th century? The quiz knows

What could be more delightful than cannibal invertebrates and food-related weather events? A lot of things!

Sixteen international games and a franchise overseas: is the NFL’s global ambition good or greed?

Having lapped its rivals in the US landscape, the most powerful American sports league is pushing for supersonic expansion of its calendar and its geography

“Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they’re getting hoggy.” When Mark Cuban, then owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, fired that line at the NFL in 2014, he was partly goading and partly gloating.

It felt directionally true. The NFL looked bloated, arrogant and vulnerable. Decades-long skeletons were tumbling out of the closet. Crisis followed crisis: concussions, Colin Kaepernick, sinister owners, cheating scandals and an almost Nixonian attempt to institute law and order. Youth participation declined. Football felt, if not dying, then at least dated, creaking under the weight of its own mythology.

An immigration court few have heard of is quietly shaping policy behind the scenes

President Trump has slashed the number of people on the Board of Immigration Appeals and stacked it with his appointees, tightening the due process available for immigrants, an NPR analysis shows.

10 tried-and-true methods to stay off your phone, according to our readers

We asked our audience to share the creative ways they limit their own phone use. They range from the practical (keep your phone in another room) to the creative (pair your phone with a fun paperback).

Breakfast with Gosling, grilled by Spielberg, burned by Star Wars: Lord and Miller are cinema’s hottest duo

From directing The Lego Movie to becoming a single entity, Phil Lord and Chris Miller have had quite the ascent. Now, sending one of the globe’s best actors to his cosmic doom in Project Hail Mary, they’re aiming for the stars

When Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were starting out in Hollywood – long before they became a popcorn-flick industry unto themselves with The Lego Movie, the Jump Street films, the Spider-Verse franchise and their latest, Project Hail Mary – the duo found themselves summoned before a panel at the formidable Directors Guild of America (DGA). Lord and Miller wanted to be credited, as they would be for the rest of their career, as co-directors, and that was something the DGA – which, as Miller puts it, prefers “one set of hands on the steering wheel” – was uneasy about. In order to get approval, the pair would have to plead their case to some very famous peers.

“It was like a Senate hearing,” says Miller, his eyes widening at the memory. “Steven Spielberg and Jon Favreau and all these people asking questions like: ‘All right, but what happens if one of you gets sick? What are you gonna do?’ It was … interesting.”

Week in wildlife: wild boar babies, fenland ponies and a slug with strange genitalia

This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world

From Harry Styles to Paris fashion week, the trouser turn-up is back

A neat cuff can elevate an outfit in seconds – but it takes more than a quick fold to get it right

Trousers – they’re not rocket science. But there are plenty of ways to mess them up, or to elevate them above their primary role of covering legs. A classic styling trick has emerged recently: the turn-up. Harry Styles had them for his pinstripe trews at the Brits, actor Chase Infiniti turned her trousers up at Paris fashion week and hefty turn-ups feature on baggy blue and ecru jeans and olive-green track trousers in JW Anderson’s latest collection for Uniqlo.

Turn-ups are the bread and butter of preppy labels such as J Crew-adjacent brand Alex Mill. Head to the website of this New York label and turned-up jeans paired with purple loafers and pink socks, or with letterbox-red ballet flats and yolk-yellow socks, will wash over you like salt spray. At John Lewis, meanwhile, turn-ups run the gamut from pencil-thin to the depth of an Oxford English Dictionary.

Chain of Ideas by Ibram X Kendi review – anatomy of a conspiracy theory

This careful analysis of so-called ‘great replacement theory’ offers a lens through which to view our broken politics

Informationsüberflutung? Weltschmerz? I’ve been searching and I don’t think even the Germans have a word that fully captures just how overwhelming the news cycle is right now. The zone has been well and truly flooded; just as you start trying to process one shocking event, something new hits the headlines.

Chain of Ideas, a new book by professor Ibram X Kendi, doesn’t provide a one-world encapsulation of our modern woes. But, in a meticulously researched 500 pages, it lays out an essential framework for parsing current events.

Homes for sale with uplifting views in England and Wales – in pictures

From a real get-away-from-it-all isolated ‘off-grid’ cottage by the sea to a 42nd-floor three-bedroom flat in a London tower block

Meta AI agent’s instruction causes large sensitive data leak to employees

Artificial intelligence agent instructed engineer to take actions that exposed user and company data internally

An AI agent instructed an engineer to take actions that exposed a large amount of Meta’s sensitive data to some of its employees, in the latest example of AI causing upheaval in a large tech company.

The leak, which Meta confirmed, happened when an employee asked for guidance on an engineering problem on an internal forum. An AI agent responded with a solution, which the employee implemented – causing a large amount of sensitive user and company data to be exposed to its engineers for two hours.

People in North Yorkshire town found to have ‘alarming’ levels of toxic Pfas chemicals in blood

Exclusive: Testing in Bentham, home to UK’s highest recorded Pfas levels, finds one in four have blood levels in greatest risk category

Alarming levels of toxic forever chemicals have been found in the blood of people living in a town previously revealed to be contaminated with the UK’s highest recorded level of Pfas.

Pfas, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and commonly known as forever chemicals because of their persistence in the environment, have been linked to a wide range of serious illnesses, including some cancers. They are used in a variety of consumer products but one of their most prolific uses is in firefighting foam.