A profile of Mitch Landrieu, the first white mayor of New Orleans in nearly 30 years–part of a larger post-Katrina trend in the city’s politics. “The elected leadership looks almost like a photo negative of the pre-Katrina government.”
A profile of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.
A Bush speechwriter tells all.
Putin, Medvedev, and how the Russian security agency FSB became the “new nobility.”
A profile of Eric Holder.
The unedited transcript of an interview with Julian Assange for the cover story of Forbes’ December issue. His next target? A major U.S. bank.
The latest WikiLeaks unveiling has exposed more than 250,000 sensitive messages from American diplomats. Among the revelations: the plan for a unified Korea, the Chinese government’s hacking strategy, and negotiations with countries for housing Gitmo detainees.
Scenario-based forecasts on the future of America, in the style of the C.I.A’s National Intelligence Estimate.
The team of assistants that made Gandhi.
How did a Kentucky entrepreneur, a Louisiana politician, and the vice president of Nigeria end up in one of the biggest scandals to hit America’s black elite in decades?
On the workings of Sarah Palin’s inner circle.
How to spend $1.2 million per month on your laundry in Kuwait; the system of kickbacks and non-competitive contracts that made Halliburton/KBR the near-exclusive contractor in the Iraq war zone.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, oil magnate and once the richest man in Russia, delivers a speech from prison, where he has lived since 2003.
A profile of Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson, published at the height of the controversy.
A profile of embattled White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
A report from Nevada, where an economy in crisis and a Tea Party upstart are threatening to topple Harry Reid, the most nationally powerful politician in the state’s history.
What happened next for Harry Whittington, the guy Cheney shot in the face? Not an apology.
The godfather of experimental psychedelics and his many occasionally imprisoned followers.
Notes from the California recount.
A behind-the-scenes account of the tense negotiations, involving Gorbachev, Kohl, Bush, and Thatcher, that led from the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall to a reunified Germany. (Translated from German.)
The story of how Washington blew its best shot to do something on climate change.
Taibbi on the Tea Party. “After lengthy study of the phenomenon, I’ve concluded that the whole miserable narrative boils down to one stark fact: They’re full of shit.”
An interview with Michael Maren, who spent nearly twenty years working in Africa as an aid worker and then a journalist, on why NGOs and “feed an African child” charities do more harm than good.
According to this excerpt from Woodward’s Obama’s Wars, the president’s military advisors gave him only one option: send an additional 40,000 troops. Obama pushed back.
Can real activism happen on Twitter and Facebook? Malcolm Gladwell says no.
