On a decade-long war:
Hackers from many countries have been exfiltrating—that is, stealing—intellectual property from American corporations and the U.S. government on a massive scale, and Chinese hackers are among the main culprits.
The truth and consequences of reporting from a war zone.
An investigation of human trafficking and the international sex trade.
The story of the Abbottabad raid, in detail.
On riding China’s Qinghai-Tibet Railway just before it opened:
Staring out at the shimmering tracks and concrete-reinforced embankment extending to the horizon, I can’t help but think of the senior Chinese scientist who confessed to me that the rail line he helped build might not be safe for long.
On Rupert Murdoch and the tabloid culture he created in the U.K.
Around the world, governments and corporations are in a race for code that can protect, spy, and destroy—hacks some secretive startups are more than happy to sell.
On the plight of the modern gypsy in Europe.
Next is "culture training," in which trainees memorize colloquialisms and state capitals, study clips of Seinfeld and photos of Walmarts, and eat in cafeterias serving paneer burgers and pizza topped with lamb pepperoni. Trainers aim to impart something they call "international culture"—which is, of course, no culture at all, but a garbled hybrid of Indian and Western signifiers designed to be recognizable to everyone and familiar to no one. The result is a comically botched translation—a multibillion dollar game of telephone. "The most marketable skill in India today," the Guardian wrote in 2003, "is the ability to abandon your identity and slip into someone else's."
On the brother of the Sultan of Brunei, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, who has “probably gone through more cash than any other human being on earth.”
When a CIA operation in Pakistan went bad, leaving three men dead, the episode offered a rare glimpse inside a shadowy world of espionage. It also jeopardized America’s most critical outpost in the war against terrorism.
What it means to be an entrepreneur in Argentina, where economic crashes are a way of life.
In the 1970s, Kelbessa Negewo was a midlevel administrator in Ethiopia’s brutal Red Terror regime. In the 1990s, he was a bellhop in an Atlanta hotel. Then someone he had tortured back home recognized him.
On the ground in Nigeria with the nation’s notorious scam artists, who share a remarkable number of qualities with America’s top entrepreneurs.
The unintended consequences of American funding in Pakistan.
On Hillary Clinton’s Arab Spring.
On the unlikely survival (for the second time) of Kamaishi, Japan.
On Russia’s faltering justice system.
How Lalit Modi built a billion-dollar cricket empire—only to be exiled from his sport and homeland.
The sudden, bloody transformation of normal citizens into rebels.
A two-part account of the recent elections in Uganada and the unlikely candidacy of Rabbi Gershom Sizomu Wambedde, the leader of a small community of Ugandan Jews.
Has Mexico become a failed state?
No one really knows the script for days like these, and neither did we.
A 12,000-word profile of recently departed Brazilian President Luiz Inácio da Silva, the “most successful politician of his time.”
On the ground in post-disaster Japan.
