In Moldova, Moscow paid Orthodox priests, conducted a vote-buying scheme and set up training camps on election interference — all in an effort to derail the Western-leaning government.
When a crisis brought on by a rash idea that results in the most prominent part of an organisation saying it will boycott the business’s showcase event doesn’t die down after a couple of weeks, observers might expect the boss to be considering his future. Not when it’s Fifa and not when it’s Gianni Infantino, the president of football’s world governing body and the subject of this week’s big story.
Jonathan Wilson’s witty account of how Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors led to the current standoff between Infantino and Fifa’s regional associations is riveting even if you are not a football fan. Jonathan explains how money, egos and some murky politicking collided to elect Infantino on the promise of reform. It’s a tale that has little to do with the sport and its ardent fans, and has far more in common with Shakespeare or a political drama. With a neat circularity, it traces how “Fifa’s attempt to move on from the crisis caused by the executive who rented an apartment for his cats in Trump Tower has wound up back in Trump Tower, with a president who rents an office there”.
Spotlight | ‘I’ll cut your throat’ Five years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, women are being killed with impunity. A reporting team from Zan Times collects shocking evidence of femicide
Environment | Smoke alarm As wildfires grow in frequency and spread, environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan reports of the race to untangle the links between exposure to fine particulates in smoke and increased mortality
Feature | War and language learning Soon after her first reporting trip to Ukraine, our chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins began to learn Ukrainian. She explains how the process taught her more about herself than she had expected
Opinion | Rule breakers need regulation The revelation that AI went rogue in test conditions should be a call for a wise US leader to back the introduction of an international rule-based order, says Rafael Behr
Culture | What’s eating Dominic Sessa? Being cast as the lead in Tony, the biopic of bad-boy chef and Kitchen Confidential author Anthony Bourdain let Sessa immerse himself in the 1970s where, he tells Ryan Gilbey, he wouldn’t mind staying
Tributes recalled Zhu Rongji’s spirited style and his efforts to integrate China into global commerce, in contrast with the rigidity of the Xi Jinping era.
The agency used a no-bid contract to buy 10 used jets, saying they were urgently needed for deportation flights. But the fleet has largely sat idle for months.
In response to a threat against the jet, President Trump was clandestinely removed in a catering container. But the plane was sent into the skies anyway.
President Trump hid in an airport catering container and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of the country after the NATO summit last month.
Russian Civilian Deaths Are Growing Rapidly as Ukraine Expands Its Air War
The higher tempo of Ukrainian strikes has fueled discontent among Russians, but it is far from clear that it will change the Kremlin’s calculus about the war.
Some institutions jumped onto the MAGA bandwagon after the 2024 election, but it hasn’t taken long for those decisions to look shortsighted. By David A. Graham
How the ‘Body Positivity’ Movement Died
A few years ago, there was a push for acceptance of different body types. Now? Not so much. By Julie Beck and Natalie Brennan
As Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s newly elected Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, put it, “People really effing hate data centers.” By Benjamin Wallace-Wells
The Delusions of John Roberts
The Chief Justice insists that his Supreme Court isn’t biased even as it keeps making dramatic leaps rightward. By Margaret Talbot
Are You a Human?
From branding irons to iris scans, the ancient business of proving who you are has never been stranger—or more lucrative. By Jill Lepore
Inside Russia’s New Gulag
Human-rights groups estimate that more than ten thousand Ukrainian civilians have disappeared into the Russian prison system. This is the story of one cell.
A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that talks with Oman on shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz were “separate” from discussions to fully reopen the waterway.
The Places Where the Bombs Have Rarely Stopped Falling in Iran
While fighting has abated in much of Iran, near-constant U.S. airstrikes in Qeshm island and other southern spots have upended lives and livelihoods.
As data centers eat up memory chips, other industries that need the components — including electronics companies like Apple — are asking for government help.
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