Soon after last week’s fatal Air India crash in Ahmedabad, Hannah Ellis-Petersen was on the ground, reporting in vivid detail on the Dreamliner’s miracle survivor, the anguish felt by families and the battle to get British victims home.
In the United Kingdom, it was a big week in Westminster as Keir Starmer announced an inquiry into child sexual exploitation grooming gangs. Home affairs editor Rajeev Syal analysed the political fall out and Zara Mohammed, former secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, offered a vital British-Pakistani perspective on the Casey review. MPs voted to change the criminal laws that govern abortion in England and Wales so that women procuring a termination outside the legal framework cannot be prosecuted. Hannah Al-Othman reported on the vote and how it was the biggest shake-up to reproductive rights in England and Wales in almost 60 years. And, on Friday, MPs also voted to accept a bill on assisted dying.Before the debate, deputy political editor Jessica Elgot interviewed Kim Leadbeater, the sponsor of the bill, who warned that the UK was “behind the curve” compared to other progressive nations.
A trio of stories from our US team examined the mounting conflicts of interests surrounding Donald Trump. Ed Pilkington gave a comprehensive overview of how the president, his family and his team have created a “pay-to-play” presidency and enhanced their wealth through bitcoin, internet contracts, electric vehicles and private dinners. Peter Stone focused on how Trump has turned his presidency into a “crypto cash machine” making millions from his crypto businesses while easing regulation, while Dharna Noor looked at Trump’s ties to the fossil fuel industry and how sector bosses that donated heavily to the Trump campaign are now profiting from the new administration’s “more supportive regulatory environment”.
Ireland correspondent Rory Carroll wrote an authoritative and compelling read on Ballymena and the roots of the outbreak of violence there last week as Northern Ireland faces stark questions over the racism, xenophobia and intolerance that has forced families from abroad to flee.
Data journalist Michael Goodier shone a spotlight on how AI is affecting higher education with a deep investigation into the thousands of UK university students caught cheating using the technology.
There’s certainly nothing high speed about its construction and the UK government revealed this week that the truncated High Speed 2 railway will now not even be finished by 2033. Gwyn Topham, Kiran Stacey and Nils Pratley explored in detail the litany of failings that have beset the £100bn project.
In Australia, Catie McLeod spoke to Alistair Kitchen, an Australian man deported from the US who claims he was targeted for writing about pro-Palestine student protests at Columbia University. Meanwhile, Sarah Collard wrote about the Indigenous women experiencing racism in Australia’s maternity wards and why they are three times more likely to die during childbirth.
This environment investigation, produced with Greenpeace’s Unearthed, revealed that mounds of clothes from well-known UK brands have been found dumped in or near internationally significant and protected wetlands in Ghana.
In Miami, Barney Ronay has been at his brilliant best covering the matches and the politics around the first stages of football’s revamped Club World Cup. It’s an event that few, other than Fifa president Gianni Infantino, appear to want. In cricket, Ali Martin, Andy Bull and Simon Burnton marked South Africa’s win in the men’s World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord’s – a profound moment for South African sport in the post-apartheid era.
Jonathan Freedland wrote a fascinating interview with Marci Shore, a professor of fascism who recently made headlines around the world when she and her family decided to move from the US to Canada. She explained why, when Trump was elected a second time, there was no doubt in her mind they had to leave the country “sooner rather than later”.
Zoe Williams talked to Miranda July about why her book All Fours gave a generation of women permission to blow up their lives. We also interviewed the winners of the 2025 Women’s prize: Lisa Allardice with fiction winner Yael van der Wouden who used her acceptance speech to reveal that she is intersex, and Alex Clark with Rachel Clarke whose story of a child’s heart transplant won the non-fiction prize. And Stuart Heritage risked the wrath of thousands of Guardian-reading parents by ranking Julia Donaldson’s best books, sparking a vigorous debate below the line.
Rock and pop critic Alexis Petridis had a hilarious time with the hip-hop legend Slick Rick, who showed him his diamond-encrusted Virgin Mary medallion, talked about growing up in Mitcham, south London, and explained why it has taken him 26 years to put out a new album. Lucy Webster had an insightful interview with Rosie Jones about her astonishingly topical new sitcom Pushers, in which she plays a disabled woman who takes up drug-dealing when her disability benefit is cut. And Xan Brooks talked to Danny Boyle about his return to zombie movies with 28 Years Later, why he wouldn’t make Slumdog Millionaire today and what he regrets about the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.
One more thing … Last week I saw Pulp play the O2, the sort of enormodome that usually results in an impersonal gig experience. But somehow Jarvis Cocker, still shouting and pointing at 61, made it feel more like a front room with a superbly thought out show that featured large portions of their new album alongside the band’s 90s oeuvre. I can’t be the only one hoping rumours that they might turn up as a surprise act at Glastonbury, 30 years since a triumphant headlining performance in 1995, prove true!
