Late-night hosts discussed Trump’s flailing attempts to distract from the fallout of the unsealed Epstein filesLate-night hosts unpacked the Trump administration’s continued attempts to distract from and underplay the Epstein files. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 16:22 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Actor’s comments came as she accepted a lifetime achievement award for women in the artsKristin Scott Thomas has accused male theatre critics of failing to understand plays written by women and about women.Citing her monologue on menstruation in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, she said the speech had “ripped through the internet”, proving the appetite for female stories told on their own terms. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 16:12 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

In the 1980s, spearheaded by Channel 4, British TV stopped telling Black and Asian people how to assimilate and gave them a voice. A golden age of dissent, activism and culture ensued – but have we since gone backwards? One afternoon in 1984, Farrukh Dhondy went for lunch, not realising he was about to become part of British television history. The Indian-born writer was working for Channel 4 at the time on breakout multi-ethnic shows such as No Problem!, a sitcom about a family of Jamaican heritage in London, and Tandoori Nights, a comedy about an Indian restaurant. When Dhondy arrived at the Ivy, Jeremy Isaacs, the burgeoning broadcaster’s founding chief executive, ordered an £84 bottle of wine.“I thought, ‘What the hell is this all about?’” Dhondy says. It turned out Isaacs wanted him to be the next commissioning editor for Channel 4. “For God’s sake, I’m not an office job man,” he said. “I’m a writer.” But after a brief conversation with the Trinidadian activist-scholar CLR James, who was living with him while going through a divorce, Dhondy changed his mind. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 16:58 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

As a teenager I wondered what I would have in common with this Nordic island. Then my teacher gave me a book of poetryLying in my bed, I listened to what sounded like a woman screaming outside in the dark. I picked up my pen. A month of living in this Icelandic village and I was still unaccustomed to the impenetrable January gloom and the ferocity of the wind; its propensity to sound sentient. I had started to feel like the island was trying to tell me something, had a story it wanted me to write.Sauðárkrókur, a fishing town in the northern fjord of Skagafjörður, was all mountain, sea and valley. There were no trees to slow the Arctic winds, and I had already been blown sideways into a snowbank while walking home from Fjölbrautaskóli Norðurlands vestra, my new high school whose name I could not yet pronounce. At night, my dreams were filled with a soundscape of weeping women. When I woke, their wailing continued in the gusts outside. That was when I wrote. I wrote to understand myself in this new place. I wrote to understand Iceland, its brutality and its beauty. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 14:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Unabashedly grand collection featuring velvet and beading is teamed with knits and loafers to reflect fashion in the real world right nowRalph Lauren is the US’s poet laureate of style. His brand came of age in a gilded era of American charm, when Bill Clinton was president, the economy was booming and the twin towers glittered on the Manhattan skyline. His clothes speak to an America of sportsmanship and vigour, where everyone has a firm handshake and perfect teeth.The US could use some poetry right now, and Lauren is still the man. In fact, at 86, he is the hottest designer at New York fashion week. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 16:06 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Wake up to smoked trout crepes, giant pancakes with caramelised pears and dark chocolate, and a lady marmalade cocktailGive me breakfast in bed over a bunch of limp supermarket roses any day. Nothing says “I love you” more genuinely than a decadent tray of delicious things to savour between the sheets. Because V-Day falls on a weekend this year, you can do better than just buttered toast and an unbidden cup of tea. Whether it’s sweet or savoury (or even a cheeky cocktail), I’ve got you! Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 06:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

A creative way to use up leftover gherkin brine that can be tweaked to suit your own tastebuds through experimental use of optional extrasDepending on country, region, household or restaurant, every cook makes tartare sauce in their own way. Inspired by Auguste Escoffier’s exceptionally simple tartare, I’ve given his recipe a zero-waste twist by using whole boiled eggs and swapping in pickle brine from a jar of gherkins or capers to replace the vinegar. Everything else is optional: tarragon, mustard, cayenne … add what you like or have in store.Traditionally, tartare sauce is delicious with fish and chips, calamari or in a chicken sandwich, but I also like it tossed through potato salad with tinned sardines and radicchio. It’s also great as a dip with crudites and on top of a steaming jacket potato. Continue reading...

11 Feb 2026 13:00 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN