Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews delivered arguably his best performance of the season when his team needed it most, leading the charge in a commanding 6-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday night.

MONTREAL — Rain and record warm weather sent several southern Quebec rivers spilling over their banks on Monday, forcing residents from their homes and leading officials to close roads and cancel classes.

Nobody said it would be easy.

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“Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.” OK, that’s the wrong play since it’s a line from “Macbeth,” but it best sums up Jonathan Bailey’s performance in the new London production of “Richard II”: The actor cranks up several gears the moment his character is forced by usurper Henry Bullingbrook to give up the throne of England for a life of imprisonment in the second half of director Nicholas Hytner’s staging of Shakespeare’s history play. But the fact that Bailey takes time to catch fire is not entirely his fault, since neither Shakespeare nor Hytner make life easy for him. Given that the play is set at the close of the 14th century, it’s no surprise that Hytner believes the play, which depicts the ushering in of a nation’s decades-long succession crisis, needs contemporary reference points. That explains composer Grant Olding’s doom-laden, grinding, low strings that herald a driving rhythm and a light-touch, bitter piano melody opening the production, a clear hat-tip to Nicholas Britell’s Beethoven-tinged theme to “Succession.” It also governs Bob Crowley’s crisp men-in-black-suits design. The antithesis of the exuberantly colored “Guys and Dolls,” the last show to play at Hytner’s physically versatile Bridge Theatre (and which ran almost two years), this limited run of “Richard II” is stripped-down and stern. Gone is the expected heraldry and splendor of the English court in which King Richard traditionally basks. Instead, the audience is arranged in the round observing a traverse-style black runway staging with changing, minimal locations being lifted up through the floor on hydraulics. It makes for welcome fluidity, highly useful in a play that, for the first half at least, moves through an uncomfortable number of locations and a load of exposition.This is a story about the threat to the kingdom and, specifically, Richard, who ruled neither wisely nor well with absolute power by ancient Divine Right. The nation is torn apart by the plots and counterplots of men and their forces loyal to the crown and those backing Henry Bullingbrook, the Duke of Hereford who, successfully as it turns out, puts his eyes on the ultimate prize and steals it.That the tussle for dominance between the men is so potentially dramatic is illustrated by the fact that around fifty years ago, Richard Pasco and Ian Richardson, two leading Shakespeareans of their day, alternated the roles when they led the play in a celebrated RSC production. Here, alas, the balance is uneven. Royce Pierreson is nicely forthright and determined but his performance is unvarying. The wonderfully character-driven abdication scene between the two men is the production’s highpoint, but elsewhere Pierreson’s determination is too one-note. Anyone questioning the wisdom of the star-casting of “Bridgerton” and “Wicked” talent Bailey should bear in mind that he played Cassio in Hytner’s riveting “Othello” at the National Theatre back in 2013 and followed that with an arresting Edgar/Mad Tom opposite Ian McKellen’s King Lear for director Jonathan Munby. As a result, his handling of the language and, crucially, the intent behind it, is entirely easeful. His king is self-satisfied and perfectly petulant, dispatching orders, and often men’s lives, with gleaming disdain. He’s even better when he’s calmly and quietly coming to understand himself and the nature of his previous selfishness in the play’s highly reflective and tender final scenes.But between those extremes of temperament, the living center of the character remains unseen, robbing the production of strength. That’s partly because he has to energize scenes that here lack force. Hytner is unquestionably one of the great directors of Shakespeare, but this production is uncharacteristically undercast in places. Some of the acting proves more proficient than powerful.

LeBron James was right when he intimated how toxic the discourse is around the game, and how it feels unlikely someone will step forward to become the face of the NBA when he finally walks away.

A man allegedly shot at his next-door neighbors and then fatally shot himself on Monday, March 10, in Berkeley Township, N.J., the Berkeley Township Police Department (BTPD) said in a Tuesday, March 11 news release.

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Across much of Canada, the long weekend brought terrible weather, including heavy snow, extremely cold temperatures, and a messy mix of ice pellets and freezing rain in parts of Ontario and Quebec.

(Bloomberg) -- Cognition AI Inc., the developer of an artificial intelligence-powered coding assistant, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation close to $4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Notre Dame went into Monday's game against Duke ranked as the nation's No. 1 team for the first time this season.

Winter weather has lacked for the most part across the Prairies this year, but Arctic air and snowy conditions will now attempt to make up for lost time in Alberta. That will replace the recent spring-like weather, with rounds of snow and colder-than-seasonal temperatures lasting into early next week.

Team Canada defeated Team Finland by a 5-3 final score on Feb. 17. With this, they will officially face off against Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off Final. This will, without a doubt, be an incredible game.

Welcome to Horror Explorer, a curated column showcasing the month’s best movies, series, books and everything else spooky worth checking out. I’m William Earl, the editor of Variety.com and the publication’s resident horror enthusiast. Please drop me a line at [email protected] if there’s something I should check out for next month’s missive.

Justin Baldoni's attorney insisted they may not be open to a settlement with Blake Lively. The actress, 36, and 49-year-old filmmaker have been embroiled in a bitter labyrinthine legal dispute for months after she accused him of harassment while they made domestic abuse movie ‘It Ends With Us’. Appearing on Matthew Belloni's podcast 'The Town', Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman was asked "what it would require for this to go away", as he referred to the "potential for the circus and the damage to both sides". But Freedman argued: "You keep referring to it as a circus and I get it. You see a lot of cases. "You see a lot of things, but the reality is this is not a circus when you go through an experience like this. "I’ve represented a lot of people in the worst moments of their career, the worst moments of their life. Justin has been destroyed by this." Freedman suggested "the only way" to really attempt to prove his client's innocence could be in court. He continued: "In this day and age, the only way that you can truly get back is to prove your innocence and that’s what we’re actively working to [do]. "That may only be able to be done in a courtroom." Justin, 41, completed filming on 'It Ends With Us' in early 2024 and started a press tour in August, and after fans noted Blake did not participate in interviews with him or attend the film’s premiere. Blake then filed a sexual harassment complaint against Justin – alleging that he and his agents conducted a smear campaign against her. Her lawsuit against him is set to go to trial in March 2026, following her initial filing in New York Federal Court. Blake - who played Justin's on-screen love interest in the movie - previously told the New York Times newspaper: "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted." Justin - who also directed the 2024 romantic drama film - has denied the allegations, with his lawyer describing the claims as "categorically false". Bryan, who is acting as a lawyer for the actor and his Wayfarer Studios production company, told Variety: "These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."

Luka Dončić and the Los Angeles Lakers had no issues Monday night.

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