Hungarian director Bence Vága’s latest work showcases a modern style of acrobatics where performers soar above as the audience wanders from room to room Imagine an empty 6,000 sq metre warehouse intricately designed to contain 40 smaller performing spaces on multiple levels. On one side lie the fallen remains of Troy; on the other, the city of Carthage. At its dark centre is a labyrinth, and above sits the decadent realm of the gods, who are all too keen to interact with the struggling humans below. The look is steampunk dystopia meets Berlin cabaret. Step through a black-curtained door and you are in a neon-lit bar where two men writhe, whirl and twist above you on ropes. Then climb a spiral staircase to a pool above which a goddess hangs by her hair and spins in a frenzy. Somewhere below a monster drags a woman into the labyrinth’s heart and the darkness devours her. Above, exiled Trojan soldiers pay homage to an imperious queen. One of her courtiers breaks away, chased by a soldier – with a few audience members in hot pursuit. There is no safety net, no stage: only viewer and performer. Continue reading...

Yvette Cooper says plans under consideration to evacuate about 300,000 Britons from Middle East amid Iran war US-Israel war on Iran – live updates It is “simply not true” that the UK is being dragged into another Iraq-style conflict in the Middle East, Yvette Cooper has said, after an RAF base in Cyprus was struck by an Iranian drone. The attack was part of a barrage of strikes by Tehran around the Middle East following a US-Israeli attack on Saturday that killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The UK foreign secretary confirmed ministers were considering possible plans to evacuate about 300,000 Britons from the region. Continue reading...

For once we can celebrate a British custom: grabbing lunch away from your colleagues to do whatever you like It’s often striking to me – as a British person and a Francophile – what prompts bewilderment among the French. Most recently, an article in Le Monde describes a concerning trend: younger adults are choosing to dine alone during their lunch breaks, flying in the face of longstanding workplace tradition. Almost one-third of employees under 25 regularly lunch alone, according to a survey by Openeat, compared with 22% of 25- to 34-year-olds, 16% of 35- to 49-year-olds and 12% of over-49s. These statistics were shocking to me too, but in entirely the opposite way: so few? I forgot that when I was a waitress in Paris, I would serve groups of colleagues all the time. Whenever I visit, I am always struck by tables of people in workwear eating a prix fixe lunch menu of several courses, normally traditional French fare and often with a glass of wine. It always seems so very civilised. This culture may well be shifting, but it remains far more the norm there than in this country. Continue reading...

Jordan Pickford’s ‘best save ever’, Antoine Semenyo’s shifting mentality and Liverpool’s set-piece threat grows Premier League top scorers: check the latest standings Arsenal won the battle of set pieces, beating Chelsea 2-1 to keep Manchester City at bay. In a game that offered few clearcut chances from open play, it was a familiar story of Arsenal overpowering their opponents from corner kicks. Gabriel bullied Reece James to set up William Saliba for their first goal and Jur​riën Timber punished a flailing Robert Sánchez for their second. Mikel Arteta’s side have equalled the record for the most goals scored from corners in a Premier League season (16) with nine games still to go. Meanwhile, Chelsea have conceded seven goals from set pieces in Liam Rosenior’s first 13 games in all competitions. Despite posing a threat offensively through Reece James’s delivery for Piero Hincapié’s own goal, they repeatedly failed to match Arsenal’s physicality when defending. Xaymaca Awoyungbo Match report: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea Match report: Manchester United 2-1 Crystal Palace Match report: Fulham 2-1 Tottenham Match report: Newcastle 2-3 Everton Match report: Leeds 0-1 Manchester City Continue reading...

Decision to expand top flight has seemed justified with Bradford, Toulouse and York grabbing early wins against established rivals When the Super League fixtures were released late last year, it was hard not to be drawn to this weekend. Clearly the headline attraction was Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR squaring off in Las Vegas but there was also another game that carried immense intrigue. Super League’s decision last year to expand to 14 teams was met with scepticism, to say the least. The general feeling was that there simply was not enough quality in the Championship, and with Salford Red Devils going into liquidation due to financial problems, the notion of three second‑tier teams coming up at once did not exactly scream of excitement. Continue reading...

Insect taxonomist Art Borkent has described and named more than 300 species of midges but fears his field of science is dying out, despite millions of insects, fungi and other organisms waiting to be discovered Once Art Borkent starts speaking about biting midges, he rarely pauses for breath. Holding up a picture of a gnat trapped in amber from the time of the dinosaurs, the 72-year-old taxonomist explains that there are more than 6,000 ceratopogonidae species known to science. He has described and named more than 300 midges, mostly from his favourite family of flies. Some specialise in sucking blood from mammals, reptiles, other insects and even fish, often using the CO2 from their host’s breath to locate their target, he says. Tens of thousands remain a mystery to science, waiting to be discovered. But to Borkent’s knowledge, nobody will continue his life’s work of identifying and studying this group of flies once he has gone. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news Oil prices rise as Iran war threatens shipping through strait of Hormuz The US dollar is strengthening this morning as investors seek out the safety of the US dollar. The dollar, which traditionally does well in times of crisis, has strengthened by 0.8% this morning. Continue reading...

The magical art of Olivier Redon Look at the Coca-Cola can in the main image. It is not a can, but an optical illusion – a trick of perspective. Can you work out what is going on? Continue reading...

I swerved the tourist traps and went on a bar crawl of the city’s bruine kroegen, the cosy, dimly lit pubs that are the Netherlands’ ‘surrogate living rooms’ Is there anything better than a good old British pub? Well, a Dutch person may prefer a bruine kroeg (brown bar). Often nondescript from the outside and thus easy to miss, these cosy, homely, rustic cafe-style bars typically have plain dark-wood furniture, candles on the tables, aged knick-knacks and faded pictures. There will be dim lighting, usually from antique-style lamps, and they make ideal hubs – they are often referred to as a “surrogate living room”. The name comes from the venues’ tobacco-stained walls and ceilings, which since the smoking ban started in 2008 have been topped up by dark brown paint. Beers and jenevers (Dutch gins) are the most popular drinks, and snacks such as bitterballen (meat ragout croquettes), boiled eggs and borrelnootjes (nuts with a crispy coating) are often available too. The choice of background music is a vital component; soft vintage jazz is ideal, so when I visited Cafe ’t Hooischip the Michael Jackson and Culture Club soundtrack jarred somewhat with the cosy, historic setting. Continue reading...

Joanna Page and her Gavin & Stacey on-screen husband Mathew Horne host a foodie podcast for celebs. Plus, Love Islanders Molly Smith and Tom Clare take over the reins from Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo One for the Gavin & Stacey fans, as Joanna Page and her on-screen husband Mathew Horne are reunited for a foodie podcast. It’s a familiar format: they invite two celebrity friends for lunch (courtesy of Good Food) and a light natter about things such as the Jaffa Cakes biscuit/cake debate. Page is on top form with first guests, wine lovers Gary Barlow and Olly Smith: “I know nothing about wine; I’m from Swansea, I was brought up with White Lightning.” Hollie Richardson Widely available, episodes weekly Continue reading...

Photo North puts photography centre stage in Leeds – established and emerging talent will participate in reviews, exhibitions and discussion during the festival, which runs 13-15 March and aims to encourage artists in every corner of the country Continue reading...

Fractured relationships lead to shocking revelations in a film bogged down with stylistic embellishments that detract from the on screen drama Home videos – especially the kind shot on early digital camcorders – appear etched with the texture of memories. For their fiction feature debut, Racornelia maximises the imperfections of this format to mount a documentary-style study of warts-and-all family dysfunction. Set in 1990s Mexico City, the first half of the story unfolds over a tumultuous Christmas Eve dinner between bickering relatives. Both married with children, brothers Alejandro (Joaquin del Paso) and Octavio (Adolfo Jiménez Castro) are eager to show off their middle-class lifestyle. As the two families gather at Alejandro’s house, their wives Estelle (played by Racornelia) and Lisbette (Giovanna Duffour) enthusiastically join in the rivalry. Between courses and glasses of wine, sly insults fly as the young children are left to their own devices. Continue reading...

For months it has been adding to my mother’s distress when all she wanted was feed-in tariff payments go into her account When my father died last year, nearly all the companies we had to notify were kind and empathetic, but not ScottishPower. It had been paying feed-in tariff (Fit) payments for electricity produced from my parents’ solar panels into his account. My parents had bought the panels jointly in 2011, and my mother is named on the certification and was ScottishPower’s main point of contact, so she thought it would be a simple matter for the payments to be switched to her bank account. It was not. Continue reading...

Portraying the breakdown of the couple’s marriage through the eyes of the people around them, this deeply researched and utterly convincing debut is an astonishing achievement Set in the early 1960s, The Daffodil Days tells the story of a couple who move from London to the countryside, have a second child and attempt to settle there, but then, their marriage in tatters, move away again. Instead of describing the couple directly we glimpse them through the eyes of the people around them, from the village doctor, their charlady and various neighbours, to friends, colleagues and visitors, offering the reader vignettes drawn from varying distances and perspectives. Although it is not mentioned in the book’s jacket copy, the couple in question are Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes; eight weeks after the period described in the novel, Plath, having returned to London, would take her own life. During their time in Devon, from 1961–2, Plath completed The Bell Jar, gave birth to a son, Nicholas, at home, and wrote the poems that would be posthumously published as Ariel; Hughes began his affair with Assia Wevill, which Plath quickly discovered. Given that the couple’s lives provide the source material for an entire cottage industry, you would be forgiven for thinking that there was little left to say about their time in Devon that has not already been said; but by coming at its subject from the viewpoints of others, this virtuoso, deeply researched and utterly convincing debut achieves something quite extraordinary. At points, the experience of reading it feels very close to time travel: Yes, you think, as you watch Plath sitting with her daughter Frieda on her lap in the garden, or having her thumb stitched up by the local GP, or glimpse her getting up to write at 4am: that is just how it must have been. Continue reading...

At London fashion week models wore headscarves adorned with jewellery, and brands like Vela are leading the change online. For gen Z Muslim women, bolder designs are making a break from darker colours • Don’t get Fashion Statement delivered to your inbox? Sign up here There’s a common sentiment among my hijab-wearing friends: a plain black headscarf is the equivalent of putting your hair in a slickback bun. A slickback bun is classic, timeless and polished – it can go with almost anything. But, it can also look a little tired. I love bold prints, and it isn’t just me. A friend of mine gravitates toward leopard prints and pashmina-style scarves, a nod to her Kashmiri heritage. And it’s not only an aesthetic choice – for many hijab-wearing women, patterned scarves feel like a push against the idea that Muslim women should blend in. Continue reading...

Hundreds of thousands of passengers remain stranded, with key air hubs in Middle East closed amid fallout from US-Israeli strikes on Iran US-Israeli attack on Iran – live updates Hundreds more flights were cancelled on Monday, extending the turmoil in global air travel caused by the US-Israel war on Iran, with hundreds of thousands of passengers already stranded. Leading airline stocks came under pressure after days of disruption, with Donald Trump indicating that the US military action could last another four weeks. Emirates Airlines, the world’s largest international carrier, which suspended all planned services to and from Dubai until 3pm UAE time (10pm AEDT, 11am GMT and 6am EST) on Monday. Etihad Airways, which suspended all flights to and from Abu Dhabi until 2pm UAE time (9pm AEDT, 10am GMT and 5am EST) on Monday. Qatar Airways, which suspended flight operations because of the closure of Qatari airspace. Continue reading...

Couples are sent on a road trip around the UK with hopes of winning a big cash prize. Plus: the must-watch season finale of Industry. Here’s watch to watch this evening 9pm, Channel 4 How would you feel being handcuffed to a man who proudly has a painting by Hitler hanging on his wall? What if it meant winning £100k? Here comes another controversial reality challenge show thinly disguised as a social experiment to bridge together complete opposites in a divisive society. In a bizarre Blind Date format, Jonathan Ross completely mismatches pairs who are then handcuffed and set off on a road trip around the UK doing everything – including showering – together. The first couples include a body-inclusive feminist and a gym-bro alpha male, a cleaner and a millionaire, and the working-class historian who has to react to that painting. Hollie Richardson Continue reading...

A wholesome, one-pot chicken-and-rice dish that’s rammed with flavour thanks to a zingy marinade Welcome to your new favourite one-pot rice dish! I have been looking at ways to introduce more fibre to my rice dishes, to make them more balanced, and what I’ve ended up with is a recipe that has extra flavour, texture and fibre from the lentils and sweetcorn. Serve with a vibrant, zingy green salad topped with toasted sesame seeds. This recipe is an edited extract from Rice: Make Rice the Heart of Your Table with Recipes from Malaysia and Beyond, by Ping Coombes, published by Murdoch Books at £26. To order a copy for 23.40, go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply Continue reading...

Age-verification systems require collecting sensitive data to support the biometric information. In no time, the internet will become a fully surveilled digital panopticon Over the past year, more than two dozen countries around the world have proposed bans on social media use for vast swathes of their public. These laws, often proposed under the guise of “child safety”, are ushering in an era of mass surveillance and widespread censorship, contributing to what scholars have called a “global free speech recession”. Last year, Australia became the first country to ban anyone under the age of 16 from accessing social media. The move emboldened other countries around the world to quickly follow suit. Germany’s ruling party announced it was backing a social media ban. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, called for a ban on social media for under-15s. In the UK, Keir Starmer has sought to enact sweeping social media bans. Greece, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan have also pursued similar online identity verification laws. Taylor Lorenz is a technology journalist who writes the newsletter User Mag and is the author of the bestselling book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet Continue reading...

Funding uncertainty is main concern, despite Labour’s pledge to revitalise construction, survey shows Almost two-thirds of senior council officers have said they are seeing construction projects delayed, despite the key role of local authorities in creating the wave of new housing and infrastructure promised by Labour. Before Rachel Reeves’s spring forecast on Tuesday, a survey of senior council officers showed that 40% do not think the local authority they work for is well placed to follow through on its construction plans. Continue reading...

Grenade-throwing contests replaced PE and ‘denazification’ speeches became homework. Pavel Talankin’s undercover film about his school’s indoctrination drive won a Bafta and is tipped for an Oscar, but has left him in exile In order to watch the Oscar-nominated documentary in which many of them have starring roles, pupils at Karabash School No 1 have had to source bootlegged copies, viewing the film in private, on their phones or their laptops. Last week’s Bafta best documentary win for Mr Nobody Against Putin has been studiously ignored by Russian state media, and the prize the film won at Sundance last year was also met with silence. Staff at the school and government officials in the Kremlin seem united in their desire to pretend that they know nothing about the film. Continue reading...

FBI official says evidence found on the suspect and in his car indicated a ‘potential nexus to terrorism’ Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox The FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce has been called in to help investigate a deadly mass shooting in downtown Austin, Texas, on Sunday morning in which a gunman opened fire in front of a bar popular with university students, killing two people and injuring 14 others before being fatally shot by police. An FBI official, Alex Doran, told reporters at a press conference that it was too early to determine the shooter’s motivation. But he added that evidence found on the suspect and in his car indicated a “potential nexus to terrorism”, while an intelligence group said the shooter had expressed “pro-Iranian regime sentiment”. Continue reading...

Tebay, Cumbria: At this in-between moment where it’s both winter and spring, I’m reminded that nothing is permanent in farming To make our new hedgerows as diverse as possible, we are planting a fruit tree every 200 metres in them, and last winter we planted a new apple and damson orchard at Low Park, our abandoned farm. This morning, I am popping some additional fruit trees into the hedges and checking on the orchard. The trees have been sourced from damson growers in the Lyth Valley and the apple trees from a local orchard group. When I arrive at Low Park, which is nearby in the Lune gorge, I am cheered to see that some primroses are already flowering in the orchard as it is so sheltered. Elsewhere, winter still has us in its grip, with snow earlier in the week on the fells. As well as the primroses, my eye is drawn to some almost fluorescent orange fungi on some deadwood, which I believe is witches’ butter. Continue reading...

No-one could rain on this parade. Like most years, 2026’s Sydney Mardi Gras involved a short sprinkle, but the clouds cleared and thousands danced in sparkles up Oxford Street Continue reading...

Among the many people I met, there was a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and a sense that resistance is slowly becoming a memory By Ewen MacAskill. Read by Greg Stylianou-Burns Continue reading...