Almond growing in California is a $7.6 billion industry that wouldn’t be possible without the 30 billion bees (and hundreds of human beekeepers) who keep the trees pollinated — and whose very existence is in peril.

Stéphane Breitwieser robbed nearly 200 museums, amassed a collection of treasures worth more than $1.4 billion, and became perhaps the most prolific art thief in history.

A sumo wrestling tournament. A failed coup ending in seppuku. A search for a forgotten man. How one writer’s trip to Japan became a journey through oblivion.

Diary entries concerning innocent Americans abroad.

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In Liberland, a small borderland between Serbia and Croatia, ‘‘government will be banned except for three things: security, legal stuff and diplomacy.’’

In the shallow reefs of Ayungin Shoal sits a rusted-out ship manned by eight Filipino soldiers whole sole purpose is to keep China in check.

In the past the only people who wrote autobiographies or memoirs were very important, those who had a crucial role in the history of their own country—Napoleon, Goethe—or were witness to major events or people who had singular, adventurous lives. Otherwise, it is ridiculous to write your autobiography.

A profile of Norman Lear, the producer behind All in the Family and The Jeffersons, who is still making TV at age 94.

Hundreds of thousands of single-family homes are now in the hands of giant companies—squeezing renters for revenue and putting the American dream even further out of reach.

Who simultaneously did business with the U.S. government, the besieged Syrian regime, and the Libyan rebels last month? The group of 16 trading houses that collectively are “worth over a trillion dollars in annual revenue and control more than half the world’s freely traded commodities.”

On the 1,600-year-old text that suggests that Jesus, long believed to be celibate, was a married man.

How a Tulsa preacher used direct mail to create the American religious right.

An interview on craft.

On “Operation Bambi,” the secret plan to oust “Today” show co-host Ann Curry.

Inside carpenter brothers Ryan and Dylan, and their stripper sister Lee-Grace Dougherty’s eight-day, fifteen-state, AK-47-wielding crime spree.

On L.A.’s Homeboy Industries, which offers former felons—including at least one disgraced CEO—the chance to work.

Margaret Profet, evolutionary biologist and MacArthur grant recipient, disappeared in 2005. She has neither been seen nor heard from since.

Afghans have long visited falbin to have their futures foretold. Fundamentalist Muslim clerics hope to stop that.

Michael Phelps returns to his Olympic training after a 45-day stint at The Meadows.

It makes as much money as Whole Foods while stocking 90 percent fewer products. The Trader Joe’s business model explained.

Four years after a disastrous MTV performance had led him to avoid the public, Rose was back on stage.

When his father was murdered, Wasil Ahmad vowed revenge. He was 8 years old.

When a creature mysteriously turns up dead in Alaska, veterinary pathologist Kathy Burek gets the call.

During the 90s, David Bazan was Christian indie-rock’s first big crossover star. Then he stopped believing.

Even soldiers who fight wars from a safe distance have found themselves traumatized.