Mel Schilling, the psychologist and relationship expert best known for her role on Married At First Sight in Australia and the UK, has died, her husband Gareth Brisbane announced on March 24, 2026. Brisbane said Schilling “passed away peacefully…surrounded by love” and used her last strength to whisper a message to him and their daughter, Maddie. Schilling, 54, was first diagnosed with colon cancer in December 2023; surgery removed a tumour but the disease later metastasised to her lungs and, over Christmas 2025, to her brain. In recent weeks she revealed oncology teams had told her there were no further treatment options. Despite gruelling treatment she continued to work, splitting time between the UK and Australia and appearing on the current season filmed in 2025; she had been on MAFS Australia since 2016 and joined the UK series in 2021. Broadcasters including Channel 4/E4 and Nine paused to pay tributes before episodes and colleagues including John Aiken, Paul C. Brunson and Alessandra Rampolla publicly mourned her. Her public account of her illness has also prompted renewed media coverage about bowel cancer symptoms and screening.

Over March 24-25, 2026 both sides launched unprecedented drone waves that intensified the four-year war and spilled into neighbouring NATO states. Ukraine and independent monitors reported one of Russia’s largest-ever 24‑hour assaults — roughly 948 Shahed and other strike drones in successive overnight and daytime waves — that killed at least six to eight people, wounded dozens and struck cities including Lviv and Ivano‑Frankivsk; a UNESCO‑listed site in Lviv was damaged. Ukraine said it intercepted most of the incoming drones, with some accounts citing a roughly 95%–97% interception rate. Kyiv also mounted large long‑range strikes on Russian territory: Russian officials said air defences shot down 389 Ukrainian drones as a Ukrainian raid ignited a fire at the Ust‑Luga oil terminal in Leningrad region. Incidents crossed NATO borders: a drone from Russian airspace hit the Auvere power plant chimney in Estonia and wreckage was found in southeastern Latvia. Attacks on energy infrastructure left hundreds of thousands without power in parts of Russia and Ukraine and prompted Moldova to declare an energy emergency. Authorities continue investigations into cross‑border drone incursions and damage to critical infrastructure.

OpenAI announced on March 24–25, 2026 that it will discontinue its Sora text-to-video model, consumer app and developer API, and is winding down a recently publicised partnership with The Walt Disney Company. Launched in late 2024 and remade as a standalone social app in September 2025, Sora helped popularise high‑quality AI video generation but drew criticism over deepfakes, copyright risk and “AI slop.” OpenAI said the Sora research team will refocus on world‑simulation research and robotics and that the company is reallocating compute as demand grows. Reports say the reported $1 billion Disney investment and character‑licensing agreement never closed and will not proceed following the shut‑down. The move follows falling user engagement, high computational costs, internal strategic shifts ahead of an expected IPO and leadership memos prioritising agentic and enterprise products. OpenAI has pledged timelines for winding down services and options for users to preserve their work.

Channel 5 premiered Power: The Downfall of Huw Edwards on March 24, 2026, a feature-length factual drama starring Martin Clunes as the disgraced former BBC newsreader. The film, produced by Wonderhood Studios and broadcast on 5 and My5, draws on exclusive interviews with the man dramatised as “Ryan,” his family, journalists who investigated the story and reporting from The Sun. It depicts the grooming of a 17‑year‑old and the wider WhatsApp exchanges that led to Edwards pleading guilty in 2024 to making indecent images of children; court reporting said he had received 41 illegal images and was given a six‑month prison sentence suspended for two years and placed on the sex offenders register. The production has prompted strong reaction: Clunes’s performance has been widely praised, while critics, some viewers and Edwards himself called the timing and approach controversial. Channel 5 says the programme was made in accordance with Ofcom rules and that allegations were put to Edwards’ solicitors; Edwards has criticised the makers for not consulting him and said he intends to produce his own account.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s Social Democrats emerged as the largest party in Denmark’s March 24 general election but posted their weakest result in more than a century, leaving the centre-left “red bloc” short of a parliamentary majority. With the Social Democrats around 21.9% (about 38 seats) and allied left parties together holding 84 of 179 seats, the right-leaning “blue bloc” won roughly 77 seats. The centrist Moderates, led by former prime minister and foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, secured 14 seats and is positioned as kingmaker. Voters were driven by domestic concerns — cost of living, migration, welfare and a proposed wealth tax — even after a high-profile international standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland briefly boosted Frederiksen’s standing. The far-right Danish People’s Party made significant gains. Parties face potentially lengthy coalition negotiations in which Greenland and Faroe Island deputies and the Moderates could determine who forms government and whether Frederiksen can secure a third term.