General news

• Under drone fire, exiled Kurds wait to confront Iranian regime - BBC

  13-03-2026 23:02 via news.google.com
  Under drone fire, exiled Kurds wait to confront Iranian regime  BBCAt the site of Saddam’s cruellest crime, the ghost of America’s ‘forever wars’ never left  The TimesKurds 'should not be treated as US contractors' amid Iran war | ITV News  ITVXWhy the next escalation in the Iran conflict could be between the US and Turkey  The ConversationIran's war within a war may be about to begin  ABC News
  
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• Ethics adviser rejects Tory call for inquiry into PM over Mandelson appointment - BBC

  13-03-2026 22:57 via news.google.com
  Ethics adviser rejects Tory call for inquiry into PM over Mandelson appointment  BBCHow Starmer’s inner circle colluded to see no evil, hear no evil on Mandelson  The TelegraphStarmer may face more resignations after release of Mandelson WhatsApp messages, say sources  The GuardianStarmer allowed Peter Mandelson’s friends to carry out Epstein checks  The TimesPM says Mandelson appointment was mistake as No 10 denies cover-up  BBC
  
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• Nasa ‘on track’ for Artemis II moon mission launch as soon as 1 April - The Guardian

  13-03-2026 20:51 via news.google.com
  Nasa ‘on track’ for Artemis II moon mission launch as soon as 1 April  The GuardianArtemis II: Nasa targets early April for Moon mission  BBCUnanimous vote in risk assessment clears way for 4 astronauts to launch on moon mission  CNNNASA ready for another shot at launching Artemis 2 moon mission  Spaceflight NowNASA says its Artemis 2 moon rocket is all fixed up. It could launch astronauts to the moon on April 1  Space
  
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• The Guardian view on the Iran war and international law: it’s worse than a mistake; it’s a crime | Editorial

  13-03-2026 19:08
  Double standards in Europe and elsewhere are laid bare by the muted response to US and Israeli aggression and the killing of civiliansWhen Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the international condemnation from Europe and elsewhere was loud and clear. Leaders did not expect legal threats to shift Vladimir Putin or end war crimes by his troops. But they understood the importance of naming what had happened as an illegal act of aggression, and of seeking to hold those respo
  
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• The Guardian view on changes to copyright laws: authors should be protected over big tech | Editorial

  13-03-2026 19:07
  Writers are voicing their anger at AI theft of their work with ‘Human Authored’ logos and an empty book. The government must listenIn a scene that might have come from a dystopian novel, books were being stamped with “Human Authored” logos at this week’s London Book Fair. The Society of Authors described its labelling scheme as “an important sticking plaster to protect and promote human creativity in lieu of AI labelled content in the marketplace&rdq
  
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• Suitcase fell on a woman’s head ... then she was diagnosed with brain cancer - The Telegraph

  13-03-2026 19:01 via news.google.com
  Suitcase fell on a woman’s head ... then she was diagnosed with brain cancer  The TelegraphCardiff woman's fatal brain tumour discovered after suitcase fell on head  BBCWoman learned she has terminal brain cancer after suitcase accident  London Evening StandardI brushed off cancer symptoms as ADHD - it's terminal and I'm 29  The Sun'I found I had cancer after a suitcase fell on me'  BBC
  
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• How an unlikely all-female clonal fish species copied and pasted itself free from extinction - Phys.org

  13-03-2026 18:40 via news.google.com
  How an unlikely all-female clonal fish species copied and pasted itself free from extinction  Phys.orgThis fish has cloned itself for 100,000 years. Scientists just figured out how.  National GeographicScientists reveal how an all-female fish has cloned itself for years | They were 1st vertebrates known to be asexual | Inshorts  InshortsHow a Clonal Fish Prevents Genetic Deterioration  bioengineer.orgAmazon Molly Genome Reveals Secret to Clonal Survival&nb
  
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• Casey’s review of adult social care offers hope | Letters

  13-03-2026 18:32
  Readers respond to Polly Toynbee’s article praising Louise Casey’s speech on social care fundingLouise Casey may have the power of words behind her (The blistering speech that tells me Britain’s social care deadlock can finally be broken, 10 March), but what she’s uncovered is a truth that local authorities have been voicing for years: the national care service will fail unless ministers stabilise the local systems that underpin it.Key Cities (a cross-party network of UK
  
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• BBCNOW/Djupsjöbacka review – Tower’s Love Returns is an uncommonly appealing piece

  13-03-2026 18:30
  Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff
  Joan Tower’s concerto for alto saxophone was brilliantly delivered by Steven Banks, part of a lively concertThe BBC National Orchestra of Wales is marking the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in a series of concerts, and the UK premiere of Love Returns, by the 87-year-old American composer Joan Tower, was at the centre of this programme with Finnish conductor Tomas Djupsjöbacka.Tower is best known for her Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman an
  
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• We must protect our natural habitats before they disappear | Letters

  13-03-2026 18:28
  Readers respond to Sam Dumitriu’s article on protecting Britain’s environmentIn his article on nature protections (How can we really protect Britain’s environment?, 8 March), Sam Dumitriu of Britain Remade celebrates habitat recovery and calls for more focus on such efforts and less on legal protections for nature. But legal protections are the only thing protecting the habitats we have left.Over the past 100 years, the amount of healthy natural habitat in England has
  
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• The giant golden egg that never hatched | Letters

  13-03-2026 18:27
  Dave Lawley recalls his father’s involvement with the Argyle Library EggIt was sad to read the saga of the Argyle Library Egg (My dad made the biggest jewelled egg in the world. The obsession would destroy his marriage, family and fortune, 7 March) and of the untimely death of Paul Kutchinsky. But repeated references to the egg that he made is akin to crediting Elon Musk with devising the Tesla car. There were six master craftsmen who worked 7,000 hours to create the egg. My father, Geoff
  
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• A duty of care to human remains | Letters

  13-03-2026 18:26
  Prof Liv Nilsson Stutz and Prof Sarah Tarlow respond to an article on ethical questions about remains from overseas in UK museumsRegarding your article on “overseas” human remains in British museums (Vast scale of overseas human remains held in UK museums decried by MPs and experts, 7 March), while the public may be surprised, the issue of human remains in museums has been central to archaeologists, anthropologists and museum professionals for decades. The question for us is not whet
  
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• Even taking Trump’s confused reasons for the Iran war at face value, it’s still a total disaster | Jonathan Freedland

  13-03-2026 18:18
  Two weeks in, it’s increasingly clear that the US-led war has taken every problem it aimed to solve – and made it worseIt’s not easy, but let’s try to look at this war in the best, most charitable light. Let’s try to see the US-Israel conflict with Iran as its prosecutors and advocates would want us to see it.They would say that it has two aims, both legitimate. The first is to weaken if not remove a regime that has done terrible evil to its own people. Who could mo
  
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• F1’s Chinese GP, Six Nations finale and Women’s League Cup final – follow with us

  13-03-2026 18:05
  Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports Continue reading...
  
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• The Guide #234: Five big questions before the 2026 Oscars

  13-03-2026 18:00
  Where will the best picture gong go? Has Chalamet blown his chances? And will anyone speak out on Iran?• Don’t get The Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereHappy Oscars Eve eve to you all. The film industry’s glitziest night takes place on Sunday, at an ungodly hour for those of us covering it from the other side of the Atlantic. Coffee will be essential for anyone staying up, as will the Guardian’s annual liveblog, covering every last minute of the ceremony as well
  
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• Tell us: has the conflict in the Middle East affected your household or business costs?

  13-03-2026 17:33
  We’d like to hear from people in the UK who have seen the cost of goods or services increase or experienced delays, cancellations or other disruptionsThe conflict in the Middle East, disruption to global shipping routes and rising oil prices are beginning to have knock-on effects on supply chains and energy markets around the world.Petrol prices have begun to rise, while turbulence in financial markets has pushed up mortgage rates. Higher transport and supply costs can also feed through in
  
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• ‘I could barely think because it was so bad’: how pain changes us

  13-03-2026 17:00
  After living with chronic pain, Darcey Steinke wanted to know how it affected others. Her memoir, This Is the Door, explores both isolation and freedomChronic pain has a way of upending a life.In her memoir This Is the Door, writer Darcey Steinke writes that “pain, like failure, breaks into our everyday lives and upsets who we thought we were and what we thought we could do”. Continue reading...
  
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• Mojtaba Khamenei: Iranians react to new Supreme Leader's first address - BBC

  13-03-2026 16:53 via news.google.com
  Mojtaba Khamenei: Iranians react to new Supreme Leader's first address  BBCPolitics  The EconomistOil targets in spotlight as Iran war enters second week – as it happened  The GuardianThe New Khamenei  Foreign AffairsHegseth: New supreme leader is wounded and disfigured  The Telegraph
  
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• Governors warn of increasing violence of ‘nothing-to-lose’ inmates attacking notorious prisoners

  13-03-2026 16:33
  Longer sentences, overcrowding and inexperienced staff cited as factors in ‘rising tensions’ in prisonsNotorious prisoners such as the Soham killer Ian Huntley are facing increasingly violent attacks from inmates with “nothing to lose”, the head of the Prison Governors’ Association has said.Tom Wheatley, the president of the PGA, which represents governors in England and Wales, said those serving lengthy sentences or whole-life tariffs in high-security institutions
  
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• Photo shows Mandelson and former prince Andrew together with Epstein - Financial Times

  13-03-2026 15:49 via news.google.com
  Photo shows Mandelson and former prince Andrew together with Epstein  Financial TimesFirst image emerges of Andrew, Mandelson and Epstein together  BBCAndrew and Peter Mandelson pictured in bathrobes with Jeffrey Epstein  The GuardianOn the island hideout where Mandelson first met Epstein  The TelegraphAndrew ‘pictured with young woman on lap’  The Telegraph
  
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• Petrol retailers pull out of Reeves meeting over ‘abuse’ of staff - City AM

  13-03-2026 15:49 via news.google.com
  Petrol retailers pull out of Reeves meeting over ‘abuse’ of staff  City AMPetrol retailers in row with government over 'rip off' accusations  BBCUK petrol retailers claim ‘inflammatory language’ of ministers led to staff abuse  The GuardianMinisters warn petrol retailers over prices in meeting  Sky NewsAsda raises petrol prices fastest as Reeves attacks ‘price gouging’  The Telegraph
  
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• Hallé/Chauhan/Helseth review – Muhly paints doom with Helseth’s gleaming trumpet

  13-03-2026 15:29
  Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterReceiving its UK premiere in a programme with Britten and Walton,Nico Muhly’s trumpet concerto is inspired by the instrument’s biblical – sometimes apocalyptic – associationsAudiences can be fickle. The Hallé’s latest programme featured one of the world’s most celebrated trumpeters, a UK premiere from one of the world’s most high-profile living composers, and one of this country’s most successful young conductors
  
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• Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 16 to 20 - Xbox Wire

  13-03-2026 15:01 via news.google.com
  Next Week on Xbox: New Games for March 16 to 20  Xbox WireNext Week on Xbox: New Games for March 9 to 13  Xbox WireThese 30+ Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (March 16-20)  Pure XboxXbox Releases This Week Include WWE 2K26, Greedfall 2, and Fatal Frame II Remake  Windows ReportXbox gets over 25 new games next week  TrueAchievements
  
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• Abstract erotica, Japanese giants face off and spring arrives in Oxford – the week in art

  13-03-2026 14:48
  Alexis Ralaivao’s provocative paintings, Hiroshige and Hokusai in perspectiveand a grand survey of flowers in fine art – all in your weekly dispatchIn Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World
  Lovely flower paintings to herald the spring, but all is not what it seems in this survey of how science, trade and tulip crazes helped shape the modern world.• Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, from 19 March to 16 August Continue reading...
  
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• Elisabeth Leonskaja review – piano legend’s unerring sense of architecture reveals connections and kinships

  13-03-2026 14:09
  Wigmore Hall, London
  In her recital programme of Beethoven, Schoenberg, Chopin, Webern and Schubert, the Austrian pianist brought new insights and expressive playingEighty-year-old piano legend Elisabeth Leonskaja throws herself on to the piano stool and into the two tumultuous descending chromatic scales that open Beethoven’s Op 77 Fantasia in G minor in a single gesture. We have a long way to go in a recital programme that reads like an Mittel-European lucky dip – Beethoven, Schoen
  
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• Miliband reveals plans that could mean nuclear power plants built near homes

  13-03-2026 14:03
  Changes to regulation to speed up development could also make it easier to build on sensitive nature sitesEd Miliband has unveiled plans that could make it easier to build nuclear power plants closer to homes and on sensitive nature sites, as he attempts to speed up the development of energy infrastructure.The energy secretary set out changes to nuclear regulation, to be carried out this year, which would mean a “win-win for building critical infrastructure while protecting nature and the
  
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• South African photographer Zanele Muholi: ‘My mother worked for a white family. I remember the pools I wasn’t allowed to swim in’

  13-03-2026 14:00
  The artist has spent three decades changing the face of African art, and has just won the prestigious Hasselblad award. But they say the win isn’t about them – it’s for under-represented people still living with the echoes of ApartheidZanele Muholi has been named the winner of the 2026 Hasselblad award. The South African artist, who identifies as non-binary, now takes their place within the pantheon of the world’s greatest art photographers, from Carrie Mae Weems, Hiroshi
  
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• Cocktail of the week: Bar Flor’s margarita – recipe

  13-03-2026 14:00
  A margarita, but made with smoky mezcal and the nutty backnotes of manzanillaThe impulse behind this was people’s enduring love of a margarita. We generally look to sherries or vermouths as key ingredients in our cocktails, but for this we wanted something that our guests would feel at ease with, while also being a little intrigued. Mezcal’s smoky notes work really well with the citrus notes in a classic margarita, so we opted for that as the base spirit, rather than tequila, while t
  
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• A Giant Asteroid Strike Beneath the North Sea Created a Tsunami Taller Than a 30-Story Building - The Daily Galaxy

  13-03-2026 13:45 via news.google.com
  A Giant Asteroid Strike Beneath the North Sea Created a Tsunami Taller Than a 30-Story Building  The Daily GalaxyA massive asteroid hit the North Sea and triggered a 330-foot tsunami  ScienceDailyNorth Sea crater was created by an asteroid smashing into Earth, causing a tsunami taller than Big Ben  BBC Sky at Night MagazineSimulation shows what would happen if asteroid hit ocean as scientists solve 20 year mystery  LADbibleDid an Asteroid Hit the North Sea
  
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• ‘Beauty is always changing’: Alessandro Michele’s Roman tribute to Valentino

  13-03-2026 13:17
  The first proper show since Valentino’s death is about the late designer, about beauty – and about Michele’s motherValentino Garavani wanted to make beautiful clothes for the women who could afford them. The perpetually tanned designer, whose vision of jet set glamour was matched only by his own yacht-and-pug lifestyle, died in January. So there was an obvious logic in taking the first proper catwalk show since his death off the fashion week schedule and back to Rome, where he
  
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• Bristol LIVE: Air ambulance helicopter lands on Whitchurch Lane amid police incident

  13-03-2026 13:15 via express.co.uk
  The helicopter was pictured landing at the scene this morning.
  
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• Shrieking kids around the pool made it holiday hell for Richard and I - so what did we do?

  13-03-2026 13:01 via express.co.uk
  OPINION - JUDY FINNIGAN: These children would've cowed a terrorist - We should complain more
  
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• Who are the key figures in the sewage crisis, and where are they now?

  13-03-2026 13:00
  With anger stoked by Channel 4’s drama Dirty Business, we look at what has happened to some of the main playersWater companies have been in the public eye for the wrong reasons again recently. South West Water was in the dock pleading guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption, while the regulator fined South East Water £22.5m for repeated supply failures that affected more than 280,000 people over three years.As the full scale of the sewage pollution scandal has been reve
  
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• My mother’s best advice: you’re allowed to enjoy nice things

  13-03-2026 13:00
  Whether it was a solo trip to a cafe, a nice lipstick or merely wandering around a shop that was out of her price range, my mum showed me that a little luxury goes a long wayMy mum’s best advice was “You’re allowed to enjoy nice things.” Both elements – the nice things and being allowed them – were equally important. She was a fervent believer in the restorative power of a treat, taking herself out for solo breakfasts most weeks (a bacon muffin and a cup of co
  
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• Morrisons to hand out delicious freebie in 343 stores to Mums this weekend

  13-03-2026 12:42 via express.co.uk
  Morrisons is handing mums a sweet little surprise this Mother's Day.
  
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• Afghan migrant raped teenager just a week after sexually assaulting woman in UK city

  13-03-2026 12:27 via express.co.uk
  The 39-year-old was arrested days after sexually assaulting, kidnapping and raping a woman near Oxford.
  
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• Best small car to buy in UK named and it's not a Ford, Hyundai, or Toyota

  13-03-2026 12:25 via express.co.uk
  Car experts from Auto Express have named the best small motors to buy in the UK, with the Fiat Grande Panda topping the list ahead of Kia Picanto and Renault 5
  
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• Tesco confirms UK store closures as it makes opening times change

  13-03-2026 12:24 via express.co.uk
  The supermarket chain is making an upcoming change to its opening times.
  
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• Out of the blue? How the colour of light could be used to treat mental illness

  13-03-2026 12:14
  A psychiatric unit in Norway has been testing its built-in lighting on conditions such as psychosis and depressionAt first glance, the psychiatric ward in Trondheim looks much like any other unit caring for patients in acute mental distress. But as evening falls, filters descend over the windows, and the lights shift to a soft amber glow. By removing blue wavelengths that interfere with the body’s internal clock, doctors here are testing an unusual idea: that the design of the ward itself
  
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• Rachel Reeves sunk UK before Iran fired a shot — and the worst is yet to come

  13-03-2026 11:50 via express.co.uk
  Today brought yet more proof that the Chancellor is one-woman weapon of mass economic destruction.
  
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• Gardener urges people to stop buying supermarket lemons, they're easy to grow yourself

  13-03-2026 11:25 via express.co.uk
  A gardener has urged people to grow their own fruit and vegetables at home this year to save money and improve their health.
  
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• Mother’s Day UK recipes: three delicious ideas to make for your mum from Ravinder Bhogal

  13-03-2026 11:00
  Something for every mother: a posh bloody mary prawn brioche, crumbly lime and passion fruit curd sandwich biscuits, and an elegant elderflower lemon drizzle cakeFew things say “I love you” more than an unbidden cup of tea, but if you want to show true appreciation to the maternal figure in your life this Mother’s Day, there’s nothing better than a few indulgent snacks to go with it. I love the British tradition of afternoon tea, but I find finger sandwiches in hotel lobb
  
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• Less respawning, more re-rolling: six of the best board games based on video games

  13-03-2026 11:00
  From war zones and socially virtuous farming to ever-changing boards and role-playing with 167 dice, here’s our pick of the most absorbing table-based entertainmentVideo games have long been heavily inspired by physical games, from chess and Scrabble to Dungeons & Dragons. The deck-building collectible card game, for example, has become immensely popular in digital form, thanks to hits such as Slay the Spire, Marvel Snap and Balatro. Now, an increasing number of games are going in the
  
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• Daisy Johnson: ‘I wasn’t a fan of David Szalay, but Flesh is a masterpiece’

  13-03-2026 11:00
  The Booker-shortlisted author on a momentous teenage encounter with The Bone People, getting a buzz from Peter Høeg’s Miss Smilla, and trying to avoid The LoraxMy earliest reading memoryMemories from my childhood are opening up as I read to my own young children at the moment. Something in the pictures of Helen Cooper’s The Bear Under the Stairs or Lane Smith’s The Big Pets takes me back to being four years old and being read to.My favourite book grow
  
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• Bailiffs board Ryanair plane after airline refuses to pay delayed flight compensation

  13-03-2026 11:00
  Austrian officials took action after airline ignored court order to pay €890 to unnamed womenBailiffs have boarded a Ryanair aircraft after the airline refused to pay compensation to a passenger whose flight was delayed.Austrian officials took action after the budget carrier ignored a court order to pay the unnamed woman €890 (£742) in legal costs and compensation for a delayed flight two years ago. Continue reading...
  
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• The best mattresses in 2026: sleep better with our 12 rigorously tested picks

  13-03-2026 10:59
  From luxury Simba and Otty mattresses to brilliant budget buys, here’s what we recommend – and how to know if you’ve found a good deal• The best mattresses for back pain
  • The best mattress toppers, testedA good mattress improves your sleep, say mattress makers – and they would, wouldn’t they? But they’re right. The older I get, the more I know it. When I was 20, I could sleep anywhere: a friend’s floor, a filthy sofa – even a phone box o
  
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• Light and Thread by Han Kang review – a tantalising book of reflections

  13-03-2026 10:00
  These essays from the Nobel literature winner open up her novels and offer beautiful imageryWhen Korean novelist Han Kang won the Nobel prize in literature in 2024, the committee praised her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. In other words, Han’s work looks both out at the world – towards the 1980 Gwangju massacre fictionalised in her novel Human Acts –  and
  
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• Diagonale des Yeux: Madeleine review | Safi Bugel's experimental album of the month

  13-03-2026 10:00
  (Knekelhuis)
  Music boxes, miaows and strange melodies pepper the whimsical and charmingly lo-fi post-punk of Laurène Exposito and Théo DelaunayThe lyrics for Diagonale des Yeux’s debut album were written in the style of an exquisite corpse game, with members Laurène Exposito and Théo Delaunay taking it in turns to patch together ephemeral thoughts and themes in a mix of French, German, English and Spanish. The bizarre, multilingual stories that emerged match the
  
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• Bleak economic data shows UK plc in trouble well before Middle East crisis

  13-03-2026 09:54
  Zero GDP growth in January will not help Rachel Reeves claim she has put UK in position to weather oil price stormBusiness live – latest updatesUK economy unexpectedly flatlined in January, ONS data showsEven before Donald Trump’s Operation Epic Fury on Iran unleashed higher oil prices, threatening the outlook for growth and inflation, the UK economy was flatlining.That’s the bleak message in the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which showed zero GDP g
  
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• People told to put their shoes in the freezer

  13-03-2026 09:50 via express.co.uk
  Experts have said doing so overnight could have benefits
  
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