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?\u2018It\u2019s difficult to think of the future right now\u2019: Milly with family dog Betty. Composite: The Guardian \/ Guardian Design<\/p>\n
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\u2019s long battle for a diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n 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<\/p>\n This week marked the 50th anniversary of one of boxing\u2019s greatest fights \u2013 a metaphorical struggle for the soul of the US in the 1970s. Muhammad Ali\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Read more<\/a><\/p>\n 3. \u2018The closest I came to making life was the closest I came to death\u2019: Florence Welch on sexism, screaming and the lost pregnancy that nearly killed herAnger over double standards \u2026 Florence Welch. Photograph: Linda Brownlee\/The Guardian<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 and her anger over the double standards that hold women in music back.<\/p>\n Read more<\/a><\/p>\n 4. Extremely offline: what happened when a Pacific island was cut off from the internetSatellite view of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha\u2018apai, January 2022. Photograph: Maxar Technologies\/Reuters<\/p>\n In January 2022, a volcano with the grand, rolling name of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha\u2018apai erupted off the coast of Tonga, ripping apart the undersea cables connecting its main island to the world. Samanth Subramanian\u2019s long read on what happened next was a fascinating reminder of the fragility of 21st-century life.<\/p>\n Read more<\/a><\/p>\n 5. People think they know what war is. Here\u2019s what I learned in seven years on Ukraine\u2019s 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<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n