Rapper Lil’ Kim to headline Melbourne’s 2026 Rising festival 10. March 2026 (20:00) ‘Trailblazer’ rapper returns to Australia for first time in 15 years, with body horror performer and dance biennale also on lineupGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailThe pioneering female rapper Lil’ Kim, the vomit-inducing performance artist Florentina Holzinger, and the first ever Australian Dance Biennale are among the lineup for the 2026 Rising festival, which is staged around Melbourne each winter.Lil’ Kim, who last played in Australia in 2011, will perform at Melbourne’s Festival Hall to celebrate her landmark multiplatinum records Hard Core – which turns 30 this year – and The Notorious KIM.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...(The Guardian)
MP tells Commons she waited 1,088 days for her rape case to reach court 10. March 2026 (19:58) Charlotte Nichols opposes plan to cut jury trials in England and Wales and calls for creation of special courts to hear rape casesAn MP has told the House of Commons that she was raped after an event that she attended as a member of parliament, revealing that she waited 1,088 days for her case to get to court.Speaking at a debate on Tuesday to discuss changes to the law under which some jury trials would be limited, Charlotte Nichols said she was waiving her right to anonymity to speak about her own experience and opposition to the bill. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Met accused of insulting black people with shake-up of anti-racism strategy 10. March 2026 (19:54) Academic Shereen Daniels says plan by Mark Rowley to absorb police’s race policies into broader anti-discrimination programme is backward stepThe Metropolitan police have been accused of insulting black people and mocking the pain it has caused them after revealing it wants to absorb its anti-racism strategy into a broader anti-discrimination scheme.The Met said the scheme, also including gender and sexual orientation, would increase its chance of success in better serving groups it had failed in the past. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Iranians living in UK tell Starmer that war will only strengthen Tehran regime 10. March 2026 (19:00) Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe among more than 100 signatories to letter urging PM not to get drawn further into the conflictNazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is among three of Iran’s former political prisoners and more than 100 Iranians living in the UK who have urged the British prime minister not to get drawn further into the Iran conflict.They are all signatories in a letter to Keir Starmer saying the way the war is being conducted is strengthening the regime in Tehran. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Tehran endures ‘worst night of strikes’ amid mixed US messages about more to come 10. March 2026 (18:38) Hegseth follows Trump’s suggestion war will soon be over by saying US will not stop until Iran ‘decisively defeated’Middle East crisis – live updatesTehran residents say the Iranian capital has endured what they described as its worst night of aerial bombardment, as the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, followed Donald Trump’s suggestion on Monday the war could soon be over with a warning of more strikes to come.“We are under heavy bombardment and I can hear back-to-back explosions. The place they hit has caught fire. It’s not clear where it exploded, but the buildings are shaking,” Niloufar, who lives in east Tehran said early on Tuesday, speaking under a pseudonym for security reasons. “They are destroying Iran,” they added, saying there were low-flying jets above. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Villagers on Principe, the ‘African Galapagos’, to be paid for protecting the ecosystem 10. March 2026 (17:13) A billionaire is funding a sustainable development project on the west African island that makes the local population stewards of its futureAt the crumbling colonial farm buildings in Porto Real, agricultural worker Kimilson Lima, 43, has signed the agreement and he’s happy. “With this money we can have a proper floor in the house,” he said. “And an inside toilet.”Lima is part of a ground-breaking experiment on the West African island of Príncipe, where villagers who agree to follow an environmental protection code will reap a quarterly dividend. To date nearly 3,000 have joined the Faya Foundation’s project, more than 60% of the adult population. The first payment of €816 (£708) has just been delivered, a large amount of money on the island. “This will be truly transformative, both for nature and for the people,” said the president of the self-governing region, Felipe Nascimento. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
London tube drivers to strike across 12 days in spring, says RMT 10. March 2026 (17:11) Union opposed to London Underground pushing ahead with four-day week planTube drivers in London are to strike across 12 days in the spring in a row over a four-day working week, the RMT has announced.The union said that London Underground bosses were pushing ahead with plans to condense the number of working days in the week, despite their members rejecting the proposals. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Jess Phillips backs jury bill as she reveals she is ‘victim of courts backlog’ 10. March 2026 (16:43) Exclusive: Safeguarding minister says man accused of restraining order breach will not come to court until 2028UK politics live – latest updatesA man accused of breaching a restraining order related to Jess Phillips will not have his case heard in the crown court until 2028, the Labour minister has revealed, as she urged MPs to back measures to scrap some jury trials.Phillips said the courts and tribunals bill had her 100% support, saying personal experience showed the “broken” court system was used to delay trials and exert control by those who were violent against women. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Washington cardinal says US war on Iran ‘not morally legitimate’ 10. March 2026 (16:40) Robert McElroy goes further than pope has done and says conflict fails ‘criterion of right intention’Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxCardinal Robert W McElroy, the archbishop of Washington DC, has said that the US-Israeli war with Iran is “not morally legitimate”, going further than the pope has done in his more moderate appeals for an end to the war.In an interview with the Catholic Standard this week, McElroy said: “The criterion of just cause is not met because our country was not responding to an existing or imminent and objectively verifiable attack by Iran.” Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Death Valley bursts into superbloom for first time in a decade 10. March 2026 (16:40) Travelers are flocking to the famously arid desert covered in a blanket of pink, purple and yellow wildflowers After a winter of record rainfall, a superbloom has erupted in Death Valley, covering the famously arid desert in a blanket of vibrant pink, purple and yellow flowers. As travelers from around the world make their way to the desert, they can expect to be greeted by fragrant air and a quilt of delicate hues.While there is no official definition for a superbloom, the National Park Service uses the term to “describe conditions when so many flowers are present that they appear as swaths of color across the landscape, rather than isolated plants, especially striking at low elevations where the ground is typically sand, gravel and rock” Continue reading...(The Guardian)
