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”.

Columnist Jonathan Liew takes up the story, painting a picture of an embattled leader, bitter that his courtiers are massing at the gates of power. But in his tale there are no heroes as he chides Federation leaders for saying nothing as a series of scandals and stitch-ups unfolded under Infantino’s rule. If a resignation or a defenestration does happen, neither of our writers are optimistic that Fifa will change and reflect the grassroots passion that makes football “the beautiful game”.

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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

Rather fittingly, I was sitting in my garden when I read about Stephen Jalland, a kind-hearted handyman who is helping out neighbours in need of a free garden rescue service. Since picking up his trimmer, he has discovered that an overgrown garden often hides an overwhelmed owner. Neil Willis, production editor

I was both engrossed and grossed out reading The secret lives of theatre workers. Georgie Wyatt’s interviews with theatre staff unveil some truly unseemly conduct from theatregoers, and serve as a warning to steer clear of seats underneath balconies or close to boxes. Lewis Fendick, retention executive

Audio | We’re reading less. And it’s making us stupid

Video | Sheep-herding robot dogs put to the test at Royal Queensland Show

Gallery | An indigenous photographic history of America

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