Today in Focus

In 2010, a plane crash in Russia killed Poland’s president and plunged its prime minister Donald Tusk into crisis. Agata Popęda and Daniel Boffey discuss how this incident still affects Tusk’s political career today. Plus: film-maker Mike Leigh on the 1819 Peterloo Massacre

Asia Bibi was kept in solitary confinement on death row after being convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan over an argument about a cup of water. Now, after her acquittal eight years later, she is in fear for her life. The Guardian’s Memphis Barker and Harriet Sherwood trace the story back to the original incident on a farm in 2009. Plus: Zoe Williams on why a housing market crash would benefit no one

As part of his field work for a damning report into poverty in the UK, Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur, visited Newcastle where he found people struggling to negotiate the benefits system and going hungry. He called it a ‘social calamity and an economic disaster’. Plus: John Kerry on how Donald Trump has undermined global institutions

Anushka Asthana joins her colleagues in Westminster on a chaotic and extraordinary day in British politics as Theresa May attempted to build support for her Brexit deal while members of her cabinet resigned in protest. Plus: in an exclusive extract from her autobiography, Michelle Obama reveals how she met her husband, Barack

Two years on from the ‘liberation’ of Fallujah from Isis control, the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont has returned to the Iraqi city. Plus: Polly Toynbee on the one thing everyone can agree on when it comes to Brexit

The world is waking up to the danger posed by single-use plastics to the environment. But consumer pressure is not enough to reverse the decades of plastic waste that litter the globe and clog up the oceans. Stephen Buranyi tells Anushka Asthana how an anti-plastic revolution is under way but the plastics industry is in no mood for retreat. Plus: George Monbiot on why climate change is a crisis that requires a response of civil disobedience

Once Theresa May brings her Brexit deal to parliament it will face a crucial vote. The Guardian’s political editor Heather Stewart looks across the House of Commons at the warring groups the prime minister will need to win over to seal a deal before the deadline of 29 March 2019. Plus: Caroline Davies on Prince Charles at 70

Anushka Asthana traces the production of cocaine from coca plantations in Colombia with the journalist Joe Parkin Daniels, Adeolu Ogunrombi from the West African Commission on Drugs and the author JS Rafaeli. Plus: Rafael Behr on why we need to look beyond the notion of the ‘will of the people’ if we value democracy

Carole Cadwalladr has been covering the biggest pro-leave donor for nearly two years. As each revelation sparks a new investigation, Arron Banks rubbishes her journalism. But those investigations are beginning to bite. Also today: Eva Wiseman on our obsession with true crime

The former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis staked his political career on getting a deal with the European Union – and lost. Now, as Theresa May enters the Brexit endgame, he looks back at the negotiating tactics used against Greece, and what the prime minister could learn. Plus: political correspondent Lauren Gambino reacts to the US midterm results