“The tragedy of Dorothy Parker, it seems to me, isn’t that she succumbed to alcoholism or died essentially alone. It was that she was too intelligent to believe that she had made the most of herself.”

In May 2018, schoolgirl Ana Kriégel was lured from her home, brought to an abandoned house, and murdered. A year later two 14-year-old boys were found guilty of her killing, becoming the youngest people in the history of Ireland to be convicted of murder.

How did it come to this? A virus a thousand times smaller than a dust mote has humbled and humiliated the planet’s most powerful nation. America has failed to protect its people, leaving them with illness and financial ruin. It has lost its status as a global leader. It has careened between inaction and ineptitude. The breadth and magnitude of its errors are difficult, in the moment, to truly fathom.”

A profile of Tiny Lister, the silver screen’s half-blind villain.

The paper reports on a battle of its own.

The story of a device that delivers electric shocks to students at a school for special needs.

Grizzly Bear and the surprisingly crappy economics of indie rock stardom.

A two-part series on how and why Arianna Huffington lost control of The Huffington Post.

A dispatch from the Philippine capital, where “no one will be safe until many, many more have died.”

What happened when 21-year-old Taiwan Smart became the target of both police and a reality TV show.

An unlikely bipartisan alliance attempts to get Yes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After eight women are murdered in Louisiana, what was initially thought to be the work of a serial killer becomes something much more troubling.

A profile of Ayman al-Zawahri, the Egyptian doctor who became Bin Laden’s #2 and has now taken over Al-Qaeda.

On the combined force of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia, a Tea Party stalwart.

In a campaign supported by the Koch brothers, Republicans are working to prevent millions of Democrats from voting next year.

On the history of political polls, which have become more influential and less reliable over time.

Even the dumpster divers of America are becoming tech-savvy, well-earning entrepreneurs.

The process of claiming a loved one’s body after a massacre at a Kenyan university.

On board the Perl Whirl 2000, a conference of hard-coding geeks on a luxury cruise ship.

On the Mexican drug cartel accused of laundering money with race horses.

How a group of men with nicknames like “Emperor” and “Spear Carrier” tipped the balance in South Sudan’s fight for independence.

The inside story of how an ABC nature shoot in Africa end up producing  a snuff film.

Inside the real lives of people who came early to intentionally provoking, confusing, and generally screwing with strangers online.

Supply and demand paid-sex economics, ‘hobbyist’ internet message boards, and the power of reviews.