1. As my daughter got sicker and sicker, our quest for answers dragged on. How did we all miss the bacteria taking over her body?‘It’s difficult to think of the future right now’: Milly with family dog Betty. Composite: The Guardian / Guardian Design
Patrick Barkham writes about nature for the Guardian, and has evangelised for wild childhoods. But when his daughter Milly came down with a mystery illness, it never occurred to him that a long-forgotten tick bite could be the cause. He described his family’s long battle for a diagnosis.
2. I rewatched the Thrilla in Manila with Muhammad Ali. He still winced at the blows years laterMuhammad Ali grimaces as he exchanges blows with Joe Frazier in the early rounds in Manila. Photograph: AP
This week marked the 50th anniversary of one of boxing’s greatest fights – a metaphorical struggle for the soul of the US in the 1970s. Muhammad Ali’s biographer Thomas Hauser recalled what it was like to rewatch the fight with Ali, and the terrible toll the bout took on him and his opponent, Joe Frazier.
3. ‘The closest I came to making life was the closest I came to death’: Florence Welch on sexism, screaming and the lost pregnancy that nearly killed herAnger over double standards … Florence Welch. Photograph: Linda Brownlee/The Guardian
The Florence + the Machine singer gave an emotional interview to Rebecca Nicholson about the terrifying health scare and devastating loss that shaped her new album – and her anger over the double standards that hold women in music back.
4. Extremely offline: what happened when a Pacific island was cut off from the internetSatellite view of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai, January 2022. Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters
In January 2022, a volcano with the grand, rolling name of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai erupted off the coast of Tonga, ripping apart the undersea cables connecting its main island to the world. Samanth Subramanian’s long read on what happened next was a fascinating reminder of the fragility of 21st-century life.
5. People think they know what war is. Here’s what I learned in seven years on Ukraine’s frontlineOlha and Mikola Grinik with their son, Kirill, daughter, Miroslava, and horse, Lastochka (Swallow), at their home in Avdiivka, Ukraine, in 2018, before war displaced them. Photograph: Anastasia Taylor-Lind
Photographer Anastasia Taylor Lind and writer Alisa Sopova have spent seven years documenting the lives of people in Donbas, right on the frontline of the war with Russia. Their vivid photo essay reflected the horrific and the mundane, as those who have chosen to stay cling to as much normality as they can.
6. ‘My past was chaos’: Iain Lee on abuse, cocaine, comedy, his on-air breakdown and his ‘sex addict’ father‘I thought Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais stole my career’ … Iain Lee. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
It’s nearly 30 years since the broadcaster and comedian found fame on Channel 4’s 11 O’Clock Show, which launched the careers of Sacha Baron Cohen and Ricky Gervais. Off air, he told Paula Cocozza, his life has lurched from crisis to crisis. Has he finally found peace?