The Tehran regime has weaponised geography in retaliation for the attacks by the US and Israel Global oil markets have recorded some of the biggest price swings in history this week after the US-Israeli war with Iran throttled the flow of Middle Eastern crude through the strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway south of Iran is one of the world’s most important trade arteries, through which a fifth of global oil and seaborne gas is shipped from production facilities and refineries in the Gulf to buyers around the world. Continue reading...

It may not be in pole position, but Brad Pitt and director Joseph Kosinski’s sleek, technically inventive ode to motor racing definitely qualifies for the Academy podium Could, should, would F1 the Movie win the best picture Oscar? Well, we have to be realistic here: F1 is currently a massive outsider, at 200-1 along with The Secret Agent, which has no chance either but for very different reasons. It’s not hard to see why: this is a swaggeringly mainstream film, where tech and branding dwarf the human input, with the film itself acting as a front-end battering ram for a sports organisation desperate to break into the promised land of the US auto racing circuit. (I mean it’s right there in the title.) So even the most reactionary, conservative Academy voter is going to find it hard to mark F1 with their tick. So no, I don’t think it could win. That’s not to say F1 doesn’t have quite a bit going for it. The Oscars, as we know, have historically had a problem with so-called “popular” films; Oppenheimer, in 2024, was the first best picture winner in two decades to finish in the Top 10 box office of the year. Whether or not that is a reflection of Hollywood itself, which since the mid-00s has concentrated its money and marketing into increasingly elaborate FX films to the detriment of drama and performance, is a question expanded on endlessly elsewhere. Suffice to say, F1 is definitely in that league, though not actually Top 10 (14th in the North American list for 2025); its ownership by Apple TV+ may have complicated things, denting its impact as a movie theatre spectacle. Continue reading...

US tour holds upper hand as deal with European counterpart is up for renegotiation, though LIV and its backers will be watching with interest What price a strategic alliance? The golf world might just be about to find out as the PGA Tour considers its partnership with the DP World Tour. A little-known element of the updated deal between the PGA and DP World Tours from 2022 – at a time when LIV disruption was in full flow – relates to a break clause. While the contract in theory runs until 2035, the strategic alliance can end in 2027. There is no present, strong sense of the agreement being curtailed but it is clear the PGA Tour wants at least a renegotiation before taking up their extension option. Continue reading...

Plus: privately-educated players, surviving despite away-day woes; and the trophy-less 1909 Scottish Cup Mail us with your questions and answers “Are the 23 red cards shown in the game between Brazilian clubs Cruzeiro and Atlético Mineiro in the Campeonato Mineiro final a record?” asks Tom Reed. In case you missed it, the Campeonato Mineiro final descended/ascended into a festival of hand-throwing. Cruzeiro won the football match 1-0 and the red card contest 12-11. We had a similar question back in 2002, when the world record was 20 in a Paraguayan league match between Sportivo Ameliano and General Caballero. But modern life is febrile, and that record was obliterated by events in Claypole, Argentina, in February 2011. Don’t take our word for it, read this excerpt from Guinness World Records: The highest reported number of players sent off in a single football match is 36 in the Argentine Primera D game between Club Atlético Claypole and Victoriano Arenas refereed by Damián Rubino (Argentina) at the Estadio Rodolfo Capocasa, Claypole, Argentina, on 27 February 2011. All 18 players on each side (11 on-field players and seven substitutes) were sent off following what the referee described in his post-match report as a ‘Generalised Brawl’ that seemed to have been the result of a series of confrontations and heavy tackles that had taken place throughout the feisty encounter. The game was the 23rd round of matches in the Primera D, the fifth tier of Argentine football, in what was in theory a regulation league match, there was no historic rivalry between the sides. Over the course of a 20-year playing career from 1995 to 2015, Gerardo ‘the Beast’ Bedoya (Colombia) was sent off 46 times. The tough-tackling defender/defensive midfielder earned 49 caps for his national team. On 24 March 2016, Bedoya made his debut as a coach of Colombian side Independiente Santa Fe during their match against Atlético Junior, and was sent off after 21 minutes for berating the officials. Continue reading...

Coach says his club are always favourites as he prepares to cross swords with Manchester City in the Champions League knockout stages for fifth year in a row This is Real Madrid. We know this because Álvaro Arbeloa keeps saying so. At the start of another press conference, his 25th since being promoted from the B team two months ago and the last before facing Manchester City, the club man who became the club manager was reminded of something he had said after beating Monaco. That night, he was told, you claimed that Madrid are always favourites. So, came the inevitable follow-up, the “even” left unsaid but hanging heavy: “Now are you favourites?” There was a familiar look, the hint of a smirk, and a familiar answer too. “If I said Madrid are always favourites, that’s what I think,” Arbeloa replied. “We are Real Madrid. We never feel less than anyone, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of who we have in front of us. We’re Real Madrid, we shouldn’t feel inferior. We know our opponents, how good City are – champions two years ago – and how difficult it will be, but we go into it with enthusiasm, looking them in the eyes.” Continue reading...

The new president won office by promising to clean up crime, but his background is red rag to a bull for many Just south of Santiago, the tiny rural town of Paine is a quiet grid of painted abode facades, shaded squares and shuttered shop fronts as the summer holidays draw to a close. But the white-knuckle fear of crime that propelled its most famous son, José Antonio Kast, to a resounding victory in December’s presidential election is as present in sleepy Paine as it is the length of Chile. Continue reading...

Unadventurous team will need to improve significantly on multiple fronts if they are to poop France’s potential title party in Paris So let’s rewind for a moment. Just four weeks ago England had beaten Wales 48-7 in round one and were looking towards Scotland with a collective glint in their eyes. “The message to the players is: go out, move the ball, play fast, play brave,” Steve Borthwick said after announcing a pretty settled side for Murrayfield. “It suits the team we have.” And now? Not unlike the Ashes cricket series in Australia this winter, the team sheet for the final game of an already torpedoed campaign is a case of too little too late. Similarly to the cult of Bazball, the bell is tolling for the Borthball era. Even if the head coach remains in post, it is inconceivable that England’s tactical approach can remain unchanged. Continue reading...

Who should win? Who’s been snubbed? Guardian film editor Catherine Shoard answers your Oscars questions Guardian writers have been making their pitches for best picture winner at the 98th Academy Awards in our Oscars hustings series. Has Chase Infiniti been snubbed? Should Train Dreams win for best cinematography? Who’s the bigger monster, Frankenstein’s or Marty Mauser? Guardian film editor Catherine Shoard answers your 2026 Oscars questions. Continue reading...

International Energy Agency reportedly proposed largest release of oil reserves in its history to bring down crude prices News just in: the G7 group of nations said today that they supported, in principle, the implementation of proactive measures to address the situation, including the use of strategic oil reserves. Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Several major questions loom over the oil market’s trajectory. Chief among them is the timing of safe passage for vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil supply. Another concern is the possibility of infrastructure damage... Even if major hostilities subside, the prospect of ongoing low-level Iranian drone attacks on energy infrastructure could prolong market instability into next year. I think it’s very likely that we’ll see gold get to over $6,000 an ounce by the third or fourth quarter this year. 9.45am GMT: Treasury Committee to quiz Rachel Reeves about spring forecast 12.30pm GMT: US inflation for February (previous: 2.4%, forecast: 2.4%) Continue reading...

In 2019, Austin Bell embarked on a wild quest to photograph all 2,549 of Hong Kong’s outdoor basketball courts using drone cameras and Google Maps. The results offer a fresh perspective on the city Continue reading...

From railcards to route tweaks, here’s how to stop your daily train or car journey breaking the bank Revealed: new affordable commuter hotspots in Great Britain Homes for sale in new commuter hotspots in England – in pictures For regular rail travellers, season tickets remain one of the biggest cost savers. A weekly, monthly or annual season ticket will work out much cheaper than paying daily fares, especially if you commute most days. Continue reading...

Faster laptop-level power, rapid wifi and 5G, plus much-improved multitasking make the middle iPad highly capable beyond just watching TV The latest iPad Air is faster in almost all facets, packing not just a processor upgrade but improvements to most of the internal bits that make the tablet work, providing laptop-grade power in a skinny, adaptable touchscreen device. The new iPad Air M4 costs from the same £599 (€649/$599/A$999) as the outgoing M3 model from last year and again comes in two sizes. One with an 11in screen, which is the best size for most people and a more expensive 13in screen version, which is ideal if you want a second TV or a laptop replacement. Screen: 11in or 13in Liquid Retina display (264ppi) Processor: Apple M4 (8-core CPU/9-core GPU) RAM: 12GB Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB Operating system: iPadOS 26.3 Camera: 12MP rear, 12MP centre stage Connectivity: Wifi 7, 5G (eSim-only), Bluetooth 6, USB-C (USB3), Touch ID, Smart Connecter Dimensions: 247.6 x 178.5 x 6.1mm or 280.6 x 214.9 x 6.1mm Weight: 464g or 616g Continue reading...

A shallow, unconvincing storyline and deeply uncomfortable scenes as starving women, unaware of why they are there, are fed titbits Did Hitler really have food tasters? Was his inner circle so paranoid about the risk of assassination by poisoning that young women were forced to sample every dish that was due to pass his lips? That was the account given to a German newspaper in 2012 by the then 95-year-old Margot Wölk, who claimed to have been one of Hitler’s food tasters. Historians have pointed to lack of evidence, with nothing in the records to back up her witness testimony. Whatever the veracity of the story, it has been turned into a shaky, unconvincing historical drama by Silvio Soldini, whose film is an adaptation of a novel by Rosella Postorino. Elisa Schlott plays the fictional Rosa, a young woman from Berlin whose soldier husband is missing on the eastern front. After heavy bombing in the city, she flees to her in-laws in east Prussia close to Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair military headquarters. One day, the Nazis come knocking for Rosa, and load her on to a van with six other terrified young women. Continue reading...

Analysis has found more than 3,000 mining operations within the most naturally precious areas of the planet, a much bigger footprint than previously thought Weda Bay is just one example of a global trend that could see the mining industry expand into some of Earth’s last areas of wilderness in search of minerals and materials to feed the global economy. Analysis produced for the Guardian by a group of academic researchers found more than 3,267 mining operations within key biodiversity areas (KBAs), accounting for nearly 5% of the mining sector’s global footprint. China, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico top the rankings for total surface mining area within key biodiversity areas, the most naturally precious areas of the planet. Continue reading...

Britain’s whole energy economy needs to be reformed – decarbonising the grid is only part of the mix Britain is once again paying the price of an energy system that is more effective at extracting profits than delivering security. Illegal war and geopolitical disruption are sending fossil fuel prices soaring – and because our electricity market turns volatile gas prices into higher electricity bills, families here risk paying the cost. The government is already unpopular. How it responds to this crisis, and the wider crisis of affordability, will define its legacy. Its instinct has been to double down on clean power. That has strong merit – but understanding that strategy’s limits shows why deeper reform is urgently necessary. The government’s goal is clear: achieve stable prices by removing gas from the grid. Britain’s electricity market uses a marginal pricing system, which means that the price paid for all electricity at any moment is set by the most expensive source needed to meet demand. Even though gas produces only about a quarter of our electricity, it sets the price around 85% of the time. That means even when renewables are generating most of the country’s power, your bill doesn’t reflect the cost of solar or wind. And because gas is a global commodity with the price set by the international market, the closing of the Strait of Hormuz translates into rising electricity bills in Hull – even as the horizon grows thick with wind turbines and the share of clean power on the grid grows every year. Mathew Lawrence is the director of Common Wealth Continue reading...

Cheshire police and CPS say they were not told about inquiry into Prof Peter Hindmarsh before he gave evidence at nurse’s trial The police force behind the prosecution of the former nurse Lucy Letby has said it was not informed by a key expert witness before he gave evidence at her trial that he was under investigation over serious concerns in his medical work. The Crown Prosecution Service also told the Guardian it was not aware that Prof Peter Hindmarsh was subject to the formal investigation by the hospital that employed him, before his first appearance as a witness on 25 November 2022. Continue reading...

Perched high above a frozen lake, Grimsel Hospiz in the Bernese Oberland offers an unusual winter escape, with gourmet food, a hot tub, star-filled skies and no distractions Near the top of the Grimsel Pass in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, a small crowd had gathered to take photographs. We were surrounded by bulky mountains and rippling glaciers, but all eyes were focused on a silvery granite chalet with apple-red shutters, its foundations deep in snow. It was early February and, one after another, we posed in front of it as if standing beside a celebrity. Which in a way we were, because the proud building was the Grimsel Hospiz, the country’s oldest recorded mountain inn and a place that predates Westminster Abbey. Continue reading...

Until that point, all my life’s dreams revolved around becoming a saxophonist. But with sudden and significant hearing loss, I had to face up to a new reality The first sign that something was wrong was a static noise that emerged suddenly in my left ear. It was 2008 and a doctor had just syringed my ears, washing out the antibiotic drops she had prescribed a week earlier, and which had rendered my world temporarily muffled. I was so relieved the drops were out that I didn’t question the strange new noise. I simply thanked her and left. As I lay on my pillow that night, trying to ignore the new whooshing sound in my ear, a puzzling crunching noise caught my attention. My brain tried to unscramble the disturbance until, confused and now wide awake, I lifted my head up, only to realise it was our grandfather clock, chiming away the hour. My left ear, I realised, was no longer hearing sounds as they really were. Continue reading...

A new retelling of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s hit novel A Woman of Substance. Plus, cracking comedy We Might Regret This. Here’s what to watch this evening 9pm, Channel 4 Forty years after the Emmy-nominated adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s 1979 novel, here’s another wonderful (and horny) retelling of the revenge tale. In the 70s, “richest woman in the world” Emma Harte (Brenda Blethyn) reflects on her life from her New York penthouse. Her story starts at the turn of the 20th century in Yorkshire, where she worked as a maid for a wealthy family. When her mother instructs Emma to chase her dreams from her deathbed, she makes plans to never be poor again. But wrong turns are always moments away … Jessica Reynolds plays younger Emma and is joined by an equally brilliant cast including Emmett J Scanlan and Lenny Rush. Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

EU rules banning terms such as ‘bacon’ for veggie products are problematic, btw cow muscle = steak Last week, European policymakers decided that plant-based foods should no longer be marketed with terms such as “chicken”, “bacon” or “steak”. The fear seems to be that shoppers might accidentally buy veggie bacon thinking it came from an actual pig. The change applies to the UK too, because of our trade agreement with Europe. After considerable pushback from organisations including the one I work with, the Vegetarian Society, and many food brands, words such as “burger”, “nuggets” and “sausage” – as in, vegan sausage rolls – are still permitted, provided the packaging makes clear they are plant-based. But even those allowances could yet be revisited. Deirdra Barr is director of marketing and communications at the Vegetarian Society Continue reading...

While some argue for destroying the terminal though which 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow, others caution of a global market ‘tailspin’ Kharg Island – through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow – is arguably the country’s most sensitive economic target but the export terminal has so far remained untouched throughout the US-Israel bombing campaign. Experts say bombing or capturing the site with US forces would be likely to cause a sustained increase to already surging oil prices, as it would amount to taking the entirety of Iran’s daily crude exports offline. Continue reading...

They will soon be looking for nest sites to begin the huge effort of raising their brood of between eight and 10 chicks If there were an award for the most underrated British garden bird, the blue tit may well come out on top. Feisty and fascinating, this colourful little creature is so common and familiar that we often take it for granted. This could be because of the blue tit’s ubiquity. In both the main garden bird surveys in the UK – the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch and the long-running BTO Garden BirdWatch – the species is always in the top five. With roughly 3 million breeding pairs, blue tits are as common in urban and suburban gardens as they are in rural ones. Continue reading...

The perpetrators were jailed for 15 years for robbery with violence in the east African country, where homophobic attacks are increasing The sentencing of two people who attacked and robbed two gay men in Kenya has been hailed by LGBTQ+ rights advocates as a breakthrough and a sign of hope for the country’s queer community. “Abel Meli & Another” were sentenced to 15 years in prison for robbery with violence on 3 March at Milimani law courts in Nairobi. The ruling is a rare example of justice being served for the queer community in Kenya. Njeri Gateru, the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, an independent human rights institution working towards equality for sexual and gender minorities in Kenya, said: “A lot is going against [the queer community] with the existence of the criminal laws and prevailing homophobic attitudes, but some of us still trust that we can find justice, so this case encourages us.” Continue reading...

Woman, from Togo, faces uncertain wait for indefinite leave to remain because of changes coming into force next month The mother of a six-year-old cancer survivor has spoken of her “overwhelming” fear her daughter will be denied crucial treatment because of the government’s immigration crackdown. The girl, from London, underwent two rounds of life-saving chemotherapy after being diagnosed at two with neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that mostly affects children. Continue reading...

Climate change committee finds move to renewable energy would also bring health, economic and security benefits Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast. Eliminating the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels by adopting renewable energy and green technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, would be the best and most cost-effective option for the future economy, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) found. Continue reading...