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The pro-democracy media tycoon was sentenced to 20 years in jail by the Hong Kong High Court.

The Seattle team produced a devastating defensive display to beat the New England Patriots.

Why did a youthful, progressive party do so poorly compared to a transactional, old-style party?

Leaders gather this week for the Munich Security Conference, with European security at a crossroads.

Our Ask Me Anything team explain how Olympic ice is made for Milan-Cortina.

While the performance carried a message of unity for Latinos in general, the artist sang for the island we are both from, writes BBC Mundo's Ronald Ávila.

From the astonishing to the emotional to the downright bizarre, the 2026 Olympic figure skating men’s short program on Tuesday night had it all.

What can governments do when countries circumvent or flout the rules to export oil?

Malik recently petitioned India's top court to include survivors forced to ingest acid under disability law.

It comes after the King said the Royal Family were "ready to support" police in their inquiries.

Yameogo Aminata says her four sons were slaughtered and her daughter is missing.

It's been days since 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie disappeared in the middle of night from her home in Arizona.

Austin Appelbee, 13, swam to get help for his mother and siblings after they were swept out to sea.

Lyse Doucet is in Iran for the first time since the crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests.

Leila Micheloud had gone to the court where Jacques Moretti was being questioned over the deadly Crans-Montana fire.

A deadly mass shooting in British Columbia is likely to increase scrutiny of whether Canada's gun laws should be toughened.

The bodies of two brothers, aged two, their one-year-old sister and father were pulled from the wreckage of a house in north-eastern Ukraine.

The iconic attire has been trending online for days following the banter between Ghanaians and Zambians.

The BBC visits the Iranian capital for the first time since authorities used unprecedented force to put down protests last month.

The BBC visits the Iranian capital for the first time since authorities used unprecedented force to put down protests last month.

Police had searched the home of the person, who was taken into custody at a traffic stop.

Members of the remote community have spoken of their fear and uncertainty after nine people were killed.

Members of the remote community have spoken of their fear and uncertainty after nine people were killed.

Madagascar's disaster management says roads are inaccessible with trees uprooted, power poles down and ninety percent of roofs ripped off.

Lawmakers accused Bondi's justice department of making improper redactions to Epstein files as she fired back.

Lawmakers accused Bondi's justice department of making improper redactions to Epstein files as she fired back.

The US President said "nothing definitive" was agreed during the meeting between the two leaders at the White House on Wednesday as nuclear talks intensify.

The Netherlands has the lowest working hours in Europe, but some say it is harming its economy.

It's the first election since the 2024 Gen Z uprising that toppled Bangladesh's long-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Eight people have been killed and 25 injured in the shootings at a school and home in a rural community in western Canada, police say.

Six Republican lawmakers joined Democrats to back a resolution that seeks to end the tariffs Trump imposed on Canada last year.

The veteran actor of stage and screen appeared in more than 80 films and TV series.

Zhang Youxia, widely seen as Xi's closest military ally, was in January removed from his post.

Zhang Youxia, widely seen as Xi's closest military ally, was in January removed from his post.

The sudden 10-day closure of El Paso's airspace reportedly followed a spat over drone technology testing by the US military.

Katie Holmes pays tribute to her late co-star's "bravery, compassion, selflessness and strength".

A candlelit vigil was held on Wednesday night in the remote British Columbia town where six people were killed and dozens injured.

Voters are hoping for a return to democracy after 15 years of authoritarian rule under Sheikh Hasina.

South Korea's spy agency says Ki Ju Ae's prominent public presence indicates she is the chosen heir.

Search efforts are continuing for the missing passengers, who included children.

The Duke of Sussex addressed parents claiming Instagram and YouTube damage young people's mental health.

From A/B tests to AI slop, the modern web is bleeding out its colour. Standardized, templated, and overoptimized, it’s starting to feel like a digital Levittown. But it doesn’t have to be.

Research isn’t everything. Facts alone don’t win arguments, but powerful stories do. Here’s how to turn your research into narratives that inspire trust and influence decisions.

A simple but powerful mental model for working with AI: treat it like an enthusiastic intern with no real-world experience. Paul Boag shares lessons learned from real client projects across user research, design, development, and content creation.

Motion can be tricky: too much distracts, too little feels flat. Ambient animations sit in the middle. They’re subtle, slow-moving details that add atmosphere without stealing the show. In part two of his series, web design pioneer Andy Clarke shows how ambient animations can add personality to any

Here is a lesson on Iterators. Iterables implement the iterable iteration interface, and iterators implement the iterator iteration interface. Sounds confusing? Mat breaks it all down in the article.

The new month is just around the corner, and that means: It’s time for some new desktop wallpapers! All of them are designed by the community for the community and can be downloaded for free. Enjoy!

With component variants, design systems become more flexible, letting you reuse the same component while adapting its look or state with ease. In this article, Daniel Schwarz demonstrates how design tokens can be leveraged to manage components and their variations using <a href="https://penpot.app?u

Let’s dive into the building blocks of UX strategy and see how it speaks the language of product and business strategy to create user value while achieving company goals. Part of the <a href="https://measure-ux.com/">Measure UX &amp; Design Impact</a> (use the code 🎟 <code>IMPACT</code> to save 20%

SVG is one of those web technologies that’s both elegant and, at times, infuriating. In this article, pioneering author and web designer Andy Clarke explains his technique for animating SVG elements that are hidden in the Shadow DOM.

There are lots of tips for [improving your website performance](https://www.debugbear.com/blog/improve-website-performance?utm_campaign=sm-10). But even if you follow all of the advice, are you able to maintain an optimized site? And are you targeting the right pages? Matt Zeunert outlines an effect

There are many existing web features and technologies in the wild that you may never touch directly in your day-to-day work. Perhaps you’re fairly new to web development and are simply unaware of them because you’re steeped in the abstraction of a specific framework that doesn’t require you to know

Debugging controllers can be a real pain. Here’s a deep dive into how CSS helps clean it up and how to build a reusable visual debugger for your own projects.

Server chaos doesn’t have to be the norm. AI-ready infrastructure and automation can bring clarity, performance, and focus back to your web work.

Animations can be one of the most joyful parts of building interfaces, but without structure, they can also become one of the biggest sources of frustration. By consolidating and standardizing keyframes, you take something that is usually messy and hard to manage and turn it into a clear, predictabl

Practical guidelines on designing time-critical products that prevent errors and improve accuracy. Part of the <a href="https://measure-ux.com/">Measure UX &amp; Design Impact</a> (use the code 🎟 <code>IMPACT</code> to save 20% off today). With a <a href="https://smashingconf.com/online-workshops/w

We’re so happy to announce that “Maturing Design Systems”—a Smashing book by Ben Callahan &mdash; will soon be joining the Smashing Library! Ben’s insights and advice are so powerful, we thought you might like to read an excerpt from the book. <a href="https://www.smashingmagazine.com/the-smashing-n

CAPTCHAs were meant to keep bots out, but too often, they lock people with disabilities out, too. From image classification to click-based tests, many “human checks” are anything but inclusive. There’s no universal solution, but understanding real user needs is where accessibility truly starts.

With December just around the corner, how about some new desktop wallpapers to welcome the last month of the year — and the holiday season, if you’re celebrating? Our latest edition of monthly wallpapers has got you covered. Enjoy!

CSS Masonry is almost here! Patrick Brosset takes a deep dive into what this long-awaited feature means for web developers and how you could make use of it in your own work.

Explainable AI isn’t just a challenge for data scientists. It’s also a design challenge and a core pillar of trustworthy, effective AI products. Victor Yocco offers practical guidance and design patterns for building explainability into real products.

Lead your organization’s AI strategy before someone else defines it for you. A practical framework for UX professionals to shape AI implementation.

CSS Wrapped 2025 is out! We’re entering a world where CSS can increasingly handle logic, state, and complex interactions once reserved for JavaScript. Here is an unpacking of the standout highlights and how they connect to the bigger evolution of modern CSS.

We’ve got exciting news! eBook versions of “Accessible UX Research,” a new Smashing Book by Michele A. Williams, are now available for download! Which means soon the book will go to the printer. Order the eBook for instant download now or <a href="/printed-books/accessible-ux-research/" data-product

In this article, pioneering author and web designer [Andy Clarke](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk) shows his techniques for creating [Toon Text titles](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/toon-text/index.html) using modern CSS and SVG.

Meet TARS — a simple, repeatable, and meaningful UX metric designed specifically to track the performance of product features. Upcoming part of the <a href="https://measure-ux.com/">Measure UX &amp; Design Impact</a> (use the code 🎟 <code>IMPACT</code> to save 20% off today).

Turn scattered user research into AI-powered personas that give anyone consolidated multi-perspective feedback from a single question.

Practical UX guidelines to keep in mind for 466 million people who experience hearing loss. More design patterns in <a href="https://smart-interface-design-patterns.com/">Smart Interface Design Patterns</a>, a **friendly video course on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.

Whether 2026 has already begun as you’re reading this or you’re still waiting for the big countdown to start, how about some new wallpapers to get your desktop ready for the new year? We’ve got you covered.

Most developers spend their days fixing bugs, shipping features, and jumping into the next sprint without even thinking about it. After a while, you begin to ask yourself, “Is this still what I want to be doing?” This article looks at how you can move into a new direction in your career without star

[Penpot](https://penpot.app/?utm_source=SmashingMagazine&utm_medium=Article&utm_campaign=MCPserver) is experimenting with MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, which could lead to designers and developers being able to perform tasks in Penpot using AI that’s able to understand and interact with Penp

How to shape your career path for 2026, with decision trees for designers and a UX skills self-assessment matrix. The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today. Brought to you by <a href="https://smart-interface-design-patterns.com/">Smart Interface Design Patterns</a>, a **friendly vide

CSS relative colour values are now widely supported. In this article, pioneering author and web designer [Andy Clarke](https://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/) shares practical techniques for using them to theme and animate SVG graphics.

Amit Sheen takes a hard look at the “Pixel Perfect” legacy concept, explaining why it’s failing us and redefining what “perfection” actually looks like in a multi-device, fluid world.

Developing effective agentic AI requires a new research playbook. When systems plan, decide, and act on our behalf, UX moves beyond usability testing into the realm of trust, consent, and accountability. Victor Yocco outlines the research methods needed to design agentic AI systems responsibly.

In CSS, we can create “stacking contexts” where elements are visually placed one on top of the next in a three-dimensional sense that creates the perception of depth. Stacking contexts are incredibly useful, but they’re also widely misunderstood and often mistakenly created, leading to a slew of lay

AI coding tools like agents can be valuable allies in everyday development work. They help handle time-consuming grunt work, guide you through large legacy codebases, and offer low-risk ways to implement features in previously unfamiliar programming languages. Here are practical, easy-to-apply techn

Let’s make the most of the shortest month of the year with a new collection of desktop wallpapers that are sure to bring a smile to your face — and maybe spark your creativity, too. All of them were designed with love by the community for the community and can be downloaded for free. Happy February!

Combobox vs. Multi-Select vs. Listbox vs. Dual Listbox? How they are different, what purpose they serve, and how to choose the right one. Brought to you by <a href="https://ai-design-patterns.com">Design Patterns For AI Interfaces</a>, **friendly video courses on UX** and design patterns by Vitaly.

Prescriptive class name conventions are no longer enough to keep CSS maintainable in a world of increasingly complex interfaces. Can the new `@scope` rule finally give developers the confidence to write CSS that can keep up with modern front ends?

Autonomy is an output of a technical system. Trustworthiness is an output of a design process. Here are concrete design patterns, operational frameworks, and organizational practices for building agentic systems that are not only powerful but also transparent, controllable, and trustworthy.

<p>The developer community hasn’t wasted any time kicking off 2026 with some really great articles, demos, and insights. Firefox 147 and Chrome 144 also shipped, and while they’re not jam-packed with features, the releases are still pretty exciting for what’s normally a slow time of year, so without

<p>If you&#8217;re reading this, chances are you already have some sort of way that you&#8217;re following when we publish new content, whether that&#8217;s <a href="https://css-tricks.com/rss-feeds/">RSS</a>, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/css-tricks.bsky.social" rel="noopener">Bluesky</a>, <a h

<p>I love me some good web research reports. <a href="https://css-tricks.com/tag/research/">I&#8217;m a sucker for them.</a> HTTP Archive&#8217;s Web Almanac is one report I look forward to every year, and I know I&#8217;m not alone there. It&#8217;s one of those highly-anticipated publications on &

<p>Semantic HTML does a lot more accessibility work than we usually give it credit for already — and ARIA is simple to abuse when we use it both as a shortcut and as a supplement.</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/i-learned-the-first-rule-of-aria-the-hard-way/">I Le

<p>The <code>@custom-media</code> at-rule has landed in Firefox Nightly! I couldn&#8217;t find it in the <a href="https://www.firefox.com/en-US/firefox/149.0a1/releasenotes/" rel="noopener">release notes</a> but <a href="https://nerdy.dev/custom-media" rel="noopener">Adam Argyle&#8217;s on the beat<

<p>A while back, Temani tacked a repeating grid of hexagon shapes. Well, he's updated it with modern CSS features that result in fewer magic numbers. And it's impressive!</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/responsive-hexagon-grid-using-modern-css/">Responsive Hexagon

<p>Accessibility advice around modals have commonly taught us to trap focus within the modal. Upon further research, it seems like we no longer need to trap focus within the <code>&#60;dialog&#62;</code> (even in modal mode).</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/there-

<p>Stu Robson's ReliCSS (clever name!) tool can excavate outdated CSS in your codebase that have modern CSS solutions.</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/relicss/">ReliCSS</a> originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com">CSS-Tricks</a>, whi

<p>The new <code>::search-text</code> pseudo (Chrome 144) matches are yellow while the current target (<code>::search-text:current</code>) is orange, but <code>::search-text</code> enables us to change that.</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/how-to-style-the-new-sea

<p>Neither Chrome, Safari, nor Firefox have shipped new features in the last couple of weeks, but fear not because leading this issue of What’s !important is some of the web development industry’s best educators with, frankly, some killer content.</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https:/

<p>I've always thought that creating a VS Code theme was a lot of work. But lo and behold, it took less than six hours to get it working, then a day or two to polish up my final tweaks.</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/no-hassle-visual-studio-code-theming-building-

<p>You’d think that publishing a VS Code extension is an easy process, but it’s not. You have to publish your theme in at least two places.</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/no-hassle-visual-code-theming-publishing-an-extension/">No Hassle Visual Code Theming: Publi

<p>CSS-only bar charts are one of those things we've tackled a bunch of times in different ways. But how can modern CSS features finally make it not only trivial, but fun?</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/css-bar-charts-using-modern-functions/">CSS Bar Charts Using

<p>Can we make pie chart that's semantic, with flexible markup, and avoids using a JavaScript library? Here's how I tackled it.</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/trying-to-make-the-perfect-pie-chart-in-css/">Trying to Make the Perfect Pie Chart in CSS</a> originally

<p>The new <code>contrast-color()</code> function is not fully supported yet. But can we still implement it in a cross-browser friendly way using other new CSS features?</p> <hr /> <p><small><a rel="nofollow" href="https://css-tricks.com/approximating-contrast-color-with-other-css-features/">Approxi

Microsoft has fixed a serious security vulnerability affecting Markdown files in Notepad. In the company's Tuesday patch notes, Microsoft says a bad actor could carry out a remote code execution attack by tricking users "into clicking a malicious link inside a Markdown file opened in Notepad," as re

Samsung’s next Unpacked event is happening on February 25th, and we anticipate the company will announce the Galaxy S26 lineup of phones. There may be some new wearables and earbuds announced, too. In addition to the showing off the new hardware, Galaxy AI software is likely to be a big part of the

Apple had been reportedly pushing to introduce some big changes to Siri with iOS 26.4, but now the company is planning to introduce them in later versions of iOS, including iOS 26.5 and iOS 27, Bloomberg reports. Nearly a year ago, Apple delayed planned features for Siri that would let it understand

Aurora, the driverless truck firm founded by former members of Google's pioneering self-driving car team, is branching out. In advance of its quarterly earnings report today, the company announced that a new software update would enable it to triple its driverless network to a total of 10 routes acr

In June 2024, in a dusty TV shop empty of customers save myself, my wife, and my kids, I stared deep into the LG C3 and Samsung S90C. I went back and forth between the two OLED screens for easily 20 minutes, happily paralyzed by the choice in front of me. The Video Only salesperson [&#8230;]

Anthropic is the latest AI company promising to limit the impact its data centers have on nearby residents' electricity bills. The company said it would pay higher monthly electricity charges in order to cover 100 percent of the upgrades needed to connect its data centers to power grids. "This inclu

Valentine's Day is often thought of as the quintessential Hallmark holiday - and why wouldn't it be? Most of the time, it's marketed to us with massive floral arrangements and heart-shaped chocolates, both of which can come off as borderline twee. But no one says you have to play by the rulebook whe

On Wednesday, Apple released its latest iOS 26 update, which includes a new process for switching from an iPhone to an Android phone, as previously reported by 9to5Mac. The updated transferring tool can move over data like apps, photos, messages, and even a user's phone number by sitting the two pho

Since the xAI-SpaceX merger announced last week, which combined the two companies (as well as social media platform X) for a reported $1.25 trillion valuation - the biggest merger of all time - a handful of xAI employees and two of its co-founders have abruptly exited the company, penning long depar

Minneapolis was not the war zone I expected to find. Depending on who you are and where you live, things can seem, for a few fleeting moments, almost normal, like a few blocks or neighborhoods over people aren't being tear gassed or rounded up by ICE or, in two tragic cases, being gunned down by [&#

Business laptops are typically dull computers foisted on employees en masse. But higher-end enterprise workstation notebooks sometimes get an interesting enough blend of power and features to appeal to enthusiasts. HP's ZBook Ultra G1a is a nice example. It's easy to see it as another gray boring-bo

WhatsApp says the move aims to push its 90 million users in Russia to a "state-owned surveillance app".

A candlelit vigil was held on Wednesday night in the remote British Columbia town where six people were killed and dozens injured.

Highguard, a new multiplayer shooter from developers who worked on games like Apex Legends and Call of Duty, launched just over two weeks ago, but developer Wildlight Entertainment is already cutting jobs at the company, according to posts from affected staffers on LinkedIn. Former Wildlight level d

Since the xAI-SpaceX merger announced last week, which combined the two companies (as well as social media platform X) for a reported $1.25 trillion valuation - the biggest merger of all time - a handful of xAI employees and two of its co-founders have abruptly exited the company, penning long depar

On Wednesday, Apple released its latest iOS 26 update, which includes a new process for switching from an iPhone to an Android phone, as previously reported by 9to5Mac. The updated transferring tool can move over data like apps, photos, messages, and even a user's phone number by sitting the two pho