Can casting away from established society to inhabit sea-based colonies save us from the problems of modern life—or are we bound to repeat our mistakes?

On a desolate, six-mile stretch of Indian beachfront, the bulk of the world’s big ships are dismantled for scrap. Though a ship is usually worth over $1 million in steel, the margins are low, the leftovers are toxic, and the labor—which employs huge numbers of India’s poor—is wildly dangerous.

A New York gossip reporter makes her way in the wilds of European bureaucracy.

The young people fighting for democracy will be back.

Documents from Edward Snowden show that the intelligence agency is arming America for future digital wars—a struggle for control of the Internet that is already well underway.

The aging action star’s second wind abroad: political maneuvering, many guns and, most importantly, a market for his B movies.

On Singapore’s attempt to create a more harmonious society using mass surveillance and data analysis.

A profile of Uruguay President José Mujica, a former revolutionary who’s been shot six times, was imprisoned for 14 years and, since taking office, has shunned the presidential mansion in favor of a small farm while legalizing gay marriage, abortion and marijuana.

An investigation into the ill-fated text messaging platform ZunZuneo.

The case against Jonathan Pollard, an American who spied for Israel.

Dick Cheney and the political history of warrantless surveillance.

The Russian president has crushed all dissent, but he’s more vulnerable than ever.

An oral history project involving former IRA members becomes a prolonged court battle over a four-decade-old murder.

François Hollande campaigned as “Monsieur Normal,” but after taking office as France’s President, a single tweet exposed his twisted 20-year love triangle.

A bungled operation in Honduras and the enduring ineffectiveness of America’s war on drugs.

What the CIA really knew about Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in 2007.

Why Obama won’t rein in the NSA.

Brazil’s restless youth in the lead-up to the World Cup.

On Silvio Berlusconi’s hedonism.

Berlusconi is Italy’s waning Hugh Hefner, alternately reviled and admired for his loyalty to his own appetites—except that he’s supposed to be running the country.

President Bush’s strange friendship with Vladimir Putin.

The rise of the Night Wolves, a Kremlin-backed biker gang, and what it says about the Russian political condition.

A young wonk is handed the budget of the world’s smallest republic.

A history of humanitarian intervention.

A profile of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, prime minister of Turkey.

A profile of Dennis Rodman today.