The parallel lives of a KGB defector and his CIA handler.

A profile of “Cathy” creator Cathy Guisewite.

It’s much less scientific—and more prone to gratuitous procedures—than you may think.

The inside story of a Texas gun-smuggling ring.

From pecan pralines to ‘dots.’

Customer feedback on the New York City coke dealing industry.

Inside the Rams-Chargers marriage.

A Bad Boy coaches in the WNBA.

At work and at home, pregnancy alters the COVID experience.

Partying in Kavos during the pandemic.

Kathy Wylde’s winding path from community organizer to “lone defender of the billionaires.”

On the rescue in July of two children from a burning apartment in southern France.

When the author’s wife was dying, his best friend moved in.

How a touring dance company battles the Chinese Communist Party.

As the head of the CBF, Ricardo Teixera rules Brazilian futebol from the top down, controlling everything from the value of championships to broadcast rights. He needs the pull off a flawless 2014 World Cup in order to set the stage for being elected FIFA’s president, but there’s one hitch; the trail of bribes and scandals he has left in his wake.

Whenever you want him to go on the record, Teixeira shushes you and raises a finger to his lips.  He addresses men and women alike as “meu amor,” with an exaggerated Rio accent. “Meu amor, it’s all been said about me – that I smuggled goods in the Brazilian national team’s airplane, that there’s been dirty dealing in the World Cup, all those investigations into Nike and the CBF."

Translated from the original Portugese.

A little after 9 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1990, the owner of a steel-products company pulled up to her office in Vinegar Hill, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and spotted a black garbage bag sitting on the sidewalk out front. She parked her car and went to move the bag when she noticed it leaking blood. The woman called 911. Within the hour, Ken Whelan, a homicide detective from the 84th Precinct, peered into the bag. It was full of human body parts.

“They have effectively claimed the progressive causes of the left – from gay rights to women’s equality and protecting Jews from antisemitism – as their own, by depicting Muslim immigrants as the primary threat to all three groups. As fear of Islam has spread, with their encouragement, they have presented themselves as the only true defenders of western identity and western liberties – the last bulwark protecting a besieged Judeo-Christian civilisation from the barbarians at the gates.”

A profile of the reclusive billionaire who orchestrated a collectible toy craze.

Policing the world of experimental research in the age of TED talks and Freakonomics.

The fall of PCCare247, an Indian company in the business of selling fixes to problems that didn’t exist.

A profile of Malala Yousafzai, the young activist from Pakistan who was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

What the Chinese education system can teach America about relying on test scores as the main metric of success.

Alfred Dellentash Jr. chartered the Rolling Stones in private jets while smuggling planeloads of Pablo Escobar’s drugs on the side.

On CEO Reed Hastings and the future of Netflix.

Mementos left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the man in charge of cataloging them.