As the final whistle blew on Spain’s Women’s World Cup triumph, England felt disappointment (a mood that, admittedly, may not have prevailed in some other parts of the world). But as the gold ticker tape settled on a momentous month of football, it was clear the tournament signalled another tipping point in the global evolution of the women’s game, as the Guardian sports writer Jonathan Liew reflects.
We visit a junior club to see how England’s Lionesses are transforming the game for girls. And Sue Anstiss asks if it’s now time to rethink the way we label men’s and women’s sports altogether.
The conviction and sentencing of Lucy Letby, who murdered seven babies while working as a hospital nurse, shocked Britain this week. As she becomes only the country’s fourth woman to receive a whole-life imprisonment term, Josh Halliday recounts her dreadful crimes and why she was not investigated for so long, despite several colleagues’ suspicions.
In the features section there’s a fascinating photo series by James Mollison documenting the bedrooms of children – often the only places they are allowed to make their own. Then, sports writer Paul MacInnes reports from Jeddah on Saudi Arabia’s bid to buy up chunks of world sport using its $600bn public investment fund, a makeover project that is particularly pertinent in the light of allegations in a Human Rights Watch report this week.
Culture catches up with Devo, the new wave band from Akron, Ohio, who are hanging up their curious “energy dome” hats after 50 years. And there’s a lovely feature by Claire Armitstead about hidden art, from underwater sculpture parks to pinhole dioramas concealed inside traffic bollards.
