Julian Borger followed a humanitarian convoy evacuating wounded and sick Palestinian children on the journey from Gaza to Jordan. The children included seven-year-old Nada, born with a hole in her heart and whose condition was deteriorating, and 16-month-old Malik, who needed surgery after a fragment of a tent pole blown apart during an Israeli bombardment hit his eye. Separately, our video team produced a powerful film about a young girl from Gaza who has been evacuated to Texas for reconstructive surgery after a lengthy delay. Mazyouna’s journey to Texas followed a Guardian article by Thaslima Begum and Annie Kelly which revealed that her evacuation had been repeatedly blocked by Israeli military authorities.
In his extremely long address to Congress, Donald Trump recapped the first six weeks of his second presidency, reiterating plans to claim Panama and Greenland, decrying diversity initiatives, promising further crackdowns on immigration and praising Elon Musk’s efforts to reform federal agencies. In reaction, Lloyd Green wrote, “the speech won’t unite a nation, but it will rally the Republican base”. The address may have been political theatre, wrote Moira Donegan, but Trump’s self-aggrandising comments were still vulgar, in a column that also decried Democrats as too silent and sedate.
Amy Hawkins in Beijing secured a well-timed exclusive interview with former Chinese army colonel Zhou Bo, who spoke candidly about the damage that Donald Trump is doing to America’s global reputation and the opportunities it presents for China.
We exposed a network of call centres in Tbilisi, Georgia that scammed $35m from thousands of people in the UK and around the world. Deepfake videos and fictional news reports featuring the money expert Martin Lewis, the radio DJ Zoe Ball and the adventurer Ben Fogle were used to promote fraudulent cryptocurrency and other investment schemes. The story of the victims, some of whom were duped into handing over their life savings was brought to life in this fantastic episode of Today in Focus.
Last year, we launched Killed Women Count, a project highlighting the toll and tragedy of women who die at the hands of men across the UK. This week we found nearly one in 10 were mothers killed by their sons, according to data of 2,000 victims dating back 15 years.
Our Lords Debate series revealed how the peer and former head of the British army, Richard Dannatt, offered to arrange meetings with ministers for our undercover reporters, posing as property investors. Meanwhile Lord Evans of Watford was put under formal investigation, following our earlier reporting about his involvement in an apparent cash-for-access venture.
For Yesterday’s dramatic episode of Today in Focus, Michael Safi travelled to Kurdish-controlled north-east Syria and entered a prison in which foreign alleged Islamic State fighters are being held without charge. Many of the prisoners’ governments have refused to take them back. In one extraordinary interview, conducted through a cell door, Michael spoke to a former NHS surgeon from Leicester who claims he was sold by IS and has been held for seven years.
Our team in Australia were on high alert as Tropical Cyclone Alfred caused havoc and pushed back the prime minister Anthony Albanese’s plans to call an election. Our reporters spoke to those hunkered down and awaiting the worst, and environment correspondent Graham Readfearn looked at both how the warming climate may have supercharged the storm and also at how meteorologists modelled the cyclone path.
Natricia Duncan was in Port of Spain, Trinidad, for the steel band finals – a high point of carnival celebrating the national instrument. It is currently in a state of emergency that has been in place since December after weeks of bloody gang warfare, but the steel pan is a symbol of joy and resilience. Nesrine Malik also wrote about carnival for the Long Wave newsletter, looking at the African roots of calypso which are being increasingly rediscovered and understood.
Gripping reporting this week included Simon Hattenstone looking at the tragic death of Joe Black, a gifted musician who overdosed in a supposedly drugs-free homeless hostelin London; Oliver Conroy’s profile of the “zizians”, a far-left group of anarchists and intellectuals with ties to Silicon Valley and the anti-AI movement, who descended into cult-like violence; and Sam Wollaston’s feature on the incredible story of Chris Lemons, the diver who somehow survived without air for almost half an hour at the bottom of the North Sea.
Theatre editor Chris Wiegand took to London’s West End after dark to discover the new breed of fans hanging around stage doors waiting for the stars to emerge. He found out that the days of autograph-hunting have been replaced by demands for TikTok content, with some fans even following actors back to their digs.
Our coverage of the Oscars, led by film editor Catherine Shoard, was magnificent. After the prizes were handed out, we looked closely at the triumph of Anora (and whether or not it was deserved), Adrien Brody’s criminally long speech, and of course the clothes.
I loved Sam Dick’s piece about the difficulty of being a gay teenager in the 1990s and how his career was inspired by a letter his father wrote to the Guardian saying how proud he was of his son; Donald McRae on why he’s fallen out of love with boxing; and Marina Hyde on the Duchess of Sussex’s new Netflix show, seeing it not just as lifestyle froth but something indicative of a dying era as the globe fractures: “You instinctively feel that both the show and the duchess embody the age that has become suddenly bygone.”
Finally, my favourite story of the week: the news, broken exclusively in the Guardian, that beavers have been legally released into the wild in England for the first time in centuries. Reporter Helena Horton was on the south coast in Dorset to witness the historic moment, and explain what impact these lovable rodents might have on fixing ecosystems and bringing wildlife back to wetlands. “They create complex wetland habitats by digging channels and pools and constructing leaky dams,” wrote Helena. Beavers, it seems, are the “ultimate bringers of life”.
One more thing …I’ve travelled from Britain to Australia many times for work, and like most people suffer terrible jet lag. So on my recent visit I was delighted to discover an app called Timeshifter, which claims to reduce and even eliminate jet lag if you follow strict rules. It’s based on circadian rhythms and it’s quite demanding – telling you exactly when to have a coffee, get sunlight, lie in a darkened room. But it definitely relieved some of the symptoms, and I’m a cautious convert.
