John Aldridge fell overboard in the middle of the night, 40 miles from shore, and the Coast Guard was looking in the wrong place. How did he survive?

In trailers just minutes from the Vegas Strip, Air Force pilots control predators over Iraq and Afghanistan. A case study in the marvels—and limits—of modern military technology.

The American students hopped across the border for a night of partying in Matamoros. One didn’t return and was found later in a shack with 14 other corpses.

After Hurricane Maria, the number of women killed by their partners doubled. Survivors say the government’s misguided response has put more lives in danger.

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.

A letter to his unborn son about the wonders of being an only child.

Duke Nukem 3D made its creators filthy rich. Trying to complete its sequel nearly destroyed them.

College is when we first get drunk. Euripides’ The Bacchae can help us learn how to do it right.

What happend to Serafim Todorov after the 1996 Olympic featherweight semifinals.

From the Greeks to George Lucas, 2,200 years of failure.

The story of Jennifer Frey, a sportswriting prodigy who drank herself to death.

What does it take to save a 300-pound loggerhead with a horrible injury? Inside the yearlong journey of recovery.

Inside a Danish homicide investigation.

A statewide movement wants to remove populist Mike Dunleavy from office.

Visas for farmworkers have surged under Trump. But the program has subjected some workers to horrific abuse.

The F.B.I. tried to recruit an Iranian scientist as an informant. When he balked, the payback was brutal.

A profile of the Daily Show host.

Long considered a punchline, vegan cheese has quietly but steadily infiltrated mainstream supermarket shelves.

In 1999, “original superagent” Leigh Steinberg represented 86 NFL athletes. His life today:

At age 63, Steinberg -- for years hailed as the real-life Maguire -- now finds himself a bankrupt, recovering alcoholic, plotting a comeback from the bottom. And before 10 p.m. tonight, as mandated by the California Bar Association, he must show that his urine is clean.

Nearly 20 years ago in a remote California town, a 16-year-old named Karen Mitchell disappeared. The case went cold, but last month local law enforcement started looking at it again after the arrest of a former resident: Robert Durst.

“Last August, I found myself wrung out and miserable over the state of the United States—the vitriol of the presidential election, the deep chasms of reality where we all seemed to find ourselves. I wanted to get the hell away, but not just away. I wanted out. I wanted nothing that resembled where I was coming from. I wanted everything new.”

On Michael Jackson’s talent.

A report from the campaign trail.

A history of food poisoning.