“For hours, days, I fixated on the patch of sunlight cast against my wall through those barred and grated windows. When, after five weeks, my knees buckled and I fell to the ground utterly broken, sobbing and rocking to the beat of my heart, it was the patch of sunlight that brought me back.”

Recently discharged, an undocumented immigrant discusses his treatment.

In a city with a large immigrant population, it is not rare for hospitals to have one or more patients who, for reasons unrelated to their medical condition, do not seem to leave. At Downtown, where a bed costs the hospital more than $2,000 a day, there are currently three long-term patients who no longer need acute care but cannot be discharged because they have nowhere to go. The hospital pays nearly all costs for these patients’ treatment. One man left recently after a stay of more than five years.

Three decades ago, Mohamed Siad Barre, commander of the Supreme Revolutionary Council, head of the politburo of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party and the last ruler of a functional Somali state, built vast concrete buildings all over Mogadishu. The beautiful city on the coast of the Indian Ocean, with its Arabic and Indian architecture, winding alleyways and Italian colonial-era villas, was dominated by these monuments. They were Third World incarnations of Soviet architecture, exuding power, stability and strength. The buildings – like the literacy campaigns, massive public works programmes and a long war against neighbouring Ethiopia in the late 1970s and early 1980s – were supposed to reflect the wisdom and authority of the dictator.

"4chan value system, like Trump’s ideology, is obsessed with masculine competition (and the subsequent humiliation when the competition is lost). Note the terms 4chan invented, now so popular among grade schoolers everywhere: “fail” and “win”, “alpha” males and “beta cucks”. This system is defined by its childlike innocence, that is to say, the inventor’s inexperience with any sort of “IRL” romantic interaction. And like Trump, since these men wear their insecurities on their sleeve, they fling these insults in wild rabid bursts at everyone else. Trump the loser, the outsider, the hot mess, the pathetic joke, embodies this duality. "

An investigation into the practice of putting teenagers in solitary confinement.

Ardelia Ali was raped in 1995. Twenty years later, her attacker was convicted.

An investigation into the abuse and neglect of adults with disabilities in Illinois.

Writing a “stunt memoir” in the waterpark capital of the world.

How an autocratic CEO made the company billions, alienating almost everyone else in the process.

On the American teenager who was kidnapped by Islamic militants while on vacation in the Philippines.

The last great brawling sports team in America—Reggie, Catfish, Goose, Gator, and the Boss—remember their fallen leader.

On the murder of a popular bar owner in a ghost town near the Mexican border.

The unexpected evolution of Olympic medalist Debi Thomas.

The story of a college town and the most devastating tornado in Alabama history.

The story of the Caughnawagas, “the most footloose Indians in North America,” and their gradual assimilation.

A segregated housing development washed away in a flood can still explain why Portland, Oregon, is such a “white” city.

After two people are found dead in Yellowstone National Park, a team of investigators tracks down the unlikely culprit: a grizzly bear.

Not education. Not income. Not even being an expert on racial disparities in health care.

At Facebook’s worst-performing content moderation site in North America, one contractor has died, and others say they fear for their lives.

Indigenous people and illegal miners are engaged in a fight that may help decide the future of the planet.

Stories of African Americans playing in a city that has struggled with racism

The author, on book tour when the pandemic set in, reflects on what could have been worse—and what could be better.

Observers have long warned of rising forced labor in Xinjiang. Satellite images show factories built just steps away from cell blocks.

In Virginia, paramilitarism gets a rebrand.